New Low

So, this was another Netflix recommendation and as it was an indie microbudget romantic comedy, I was all in. The movie was written, directed, and edited by it's star, Adam Bowers, in 2010 and premiered at Sundance.

The movie is about the ultimate slacker, played by Adam Bowers, who must decide if he should be with a girl as low, mean, and lazy as himself or one of the best people he's ever met.

The plot is very simplistic however there is a story and direction to the movie. There was potential for this to fall into the mumblecore arena, but it escaped that fate by keeping a nicely paced plot. The dialogue was rather witty and satirical in most of the scenes. I've heard one critic comparing the screenwriting to that of Woody Allen, and I wouldn't go that far. Perhaps a teenage Woody Allen with no experience? The characters, well just the main character, did ramble like a Woody Allen protagonist and was very self-depreciating. Other than that, I didn't see that many similarities. While some of the dialogue was witty and satirical, the story line wasn't that compelling to keep me completely interested. I found myself just wishing to get to the end to see what he decides instead of enjoying the journey.

There was shallow depth of field used in almost all of the scenes, which is usually very cinematic looking however the framing of the shots was not well thought out and it took away from the story. It made it look cheaper than it should have. The editing was choppy as well. In a lot of scenes, he cut in a little too early so it looked as though the actors were waiting to say their lines. That was distracting as well, in my opinion. Some of this stuff might not matter to others.

The main character was likable enough, even if he was a lazy asshole. He was very believable in his role however. Jayme Ratzer, who plays the love interest on the same level as the protagonist, also did a great job and brought some comedy to her role as well. Unfortunately the other actress was not as believable and looked stiff in the movie.

Overall, there was a lot of bottled potential in this movie but a lot of it remained untapped. It wasn't a bad movie nor was it that memorable for me. It just could have used a little finessing. It definitely had a local indie feel to it. At the very least it was interesting to see how modern-day dating is for normal people."That's the problem with loving a person. It keeps you from seeing how unlovable they really are".