Redwoods (2009) Reviews

• Lighthearted Bridges Remake

  thesar-22010-02-23

  For the record, I am tired of calling movies I review predictable. I'm beginning to think all the movies I watch are. So, with that in mind, I cleared my mind to watch a "light-hearted" independent gay-themed, romance film called Redwoods. Heck, I had a feeling, five-minutes in, that this would be, yet another (incredibly) low-budget forced gay tearjerker. So, I shut off the "critic" side of my brain and watched the movie with an open mind. It was cute (as was the lead star, Bradley!) and if you really let yourself go, like I did, you'll fall for this pair of lost souls, Chase (Montgomery) and Everett (Bradley.) And if you loved The Bridges of Madison County, like I did, you're sure to love this. (By the way, it's hard not to compare this to that Clint Eastwood/Meryl Streep classic – it was virtually word-for-word that movie.) Obvious unhappy couple Everett and Miles (Coughenour) begin the movie when Miles takes their autistic son up to Seattle for a week, leaving Everett alone to meet wandering, free-spirit/novelist Chase within minutes. Again, here comes the predictability to their eventual budding romance and Everett questioning on whether he should remain with his unhappy life or take a risk with the drifter. As I wrote, I turned off my analyzing brain and just allowed myself to watch and enjoy the movie. It was really sweet, it had a lot of soft romantic moments and somewhat good cinematography. Once the movie was over, I had mixed feelings (so, I guess the critic inside was awakened.) On the one hand it did have the aforementioned good qualities, but on the other hand, a lot of it felt so, well, forced. The secondary characters were pushing so hard – without barely an ounce of true acting, to enforce "good morals" or "feel-good" spots, that I felt I was watching an after-school special, albeit a nicely gay-packaged, after-school special. The "somewhat good cinematography" for the most part looked like it was filmed as an afterthought and inserted/edited in to the feature. Also, the ending was, indeed, out of left-field, though not 100% surprising. And finally, as much as I admire the filmmakers, writer/director and actors taking on a small independent film with a great backdrop, all I could think of was how many much better-made films I could rewatch. Such as Brokeback Mountain and Big Eden – movies that both contained true romance and real actors playing real (good) supporting roles to further both the story and drama along, and the already mentioned The Bridges of Madison County. Yet, I would still recommend this harmless little picture. Not really as the tearjerker it wants to be, but as a gay themed light entertainment with some good eye-candy. (I am human, after all.)

• Save the Redwoods

  tony-carson-429-1420822012-07-22

  I watched this movie on my Android phone while waiting on a plane. So, I'll give you it was likely not the most flattering environment. That being said, I have always enjoyed TLA movies and have come to expect a high quality product from them. Redwoods started out looking to be consistent with that expectation. However, not too far into the movie, I realized that this was going to be an exception as this was a gay setting of "The Horse Whisperer" Evidently, TLA has a requirement that includes showing some frontal male nudity (I don't mind), but in this flick, it seemed to be so show "D-word" for the sake of "D-word". Neither of the actors who showed all were that inspiring naked. The love scene between the two main characters was built up nicely and some gratuitous frontal nudity would have been perfect, but alas we weren't so treated. There were a few scenes that left one wondering "WTF". An example was the father/son moment in the antique store. I can only assume that the scene's cliché dialogue was inspired by the antique store itself. Mercifully, however, the editors did spare us the moments of possible redundancy by cutting into scenes where other characters are being let in on the story. Through most of the movie, we were led to believe that Evrett was caught up in a bad relationship where he and his partner stayed together "for the children". By the end of the movie an amazing and unbelievable transformation seemed to occur. I realize that these movies are low budget and in this case, the score (which was nice) featured solo piano and synthesized instrumental tracks that sounded like they were taped on a 1980's K-mart Casio keyboard. I think they could have put out money for a bit better quality of instrument, if not a real orchestra. Lastly, the story (a gay version of "Horse Whisperer") was a nice love story. It was a bit slow, but held my attention and I honestly was interested to see how it all ended up. The ending was sweet and pleasantly unexpected. The only thing I would changed would be to invest in some footage showing the changing of seasons to help the audience understand that years were passing. All in all, this was a nice movie and worth a watch. Tony Carson

• Lush production values & sincere sentiment make a great story.

  r0der1ck2009-08-16

  This is a well-made and sincere film that avoids pat answers or schmaltzy sentiment in favor of asking interesting questions everyone faces in life - what makes happiness and what is its price - without relying on melodrama or exploitation. The story is very simple and the presentation very low-key with subtle, convincing performances and great chemistry between the leads. One of the things I realized after seeing it is that the story could very easily be about heterosexuals. It in no way looks to the gay community to provide some unique positive or negative trait. Lots of films make the festival rounds relying on stereotypes to carry them along but this is simply about people and love and I think anyone can connect with the themes it presents. Highly recommended to anyone interested in a touching story regardless of orientation.

• Insultingly shallow

  tlerner2010-01-25

  After seeing this flick and reading the reviews I wonder if we saw the same movie. It is obvious that the director tried to shamelessly fashion this garbage after the masterpiece 'Brokeback Mountain' by using nature as backdrop to the story but has failed miserably. This film is so superficially shallow, loaded with cheap sentimental clichés, and unbelievable holes in the script. It is just another one in a long list of American gay cinema failures. Have any of these directors seen any French gay themed movies like 'It is only a question of love', or 'A love to hide' or any Asian gay movie which has a plausible and well told story? The characters are not well developed (same goes for the plot) and so unbelievable that at no point did I sympathize with them or cared about their fate. The dialog is predictable, boring, and too pedestrian for my taste. The relationships are not fully explained nor do they seem realistic; two gay men have a son in a rural America (and everybody seems fine with it?!), the son stops speaking for some never truly explained reason, the main protagonists' love affair happens (and deepens) within a matter of few days only, their dialog could have been lifted from any cheap hetero romance novels, etc… There is a legitimate reason why these actors have not made into mainstream movies: they have neither charisma nor talent.

• The Bridges of Madison County gone gay and wrong

  axolos2010-02-12

  I am sorry, I was really thinking hard about an other summary for this article, however there is nothing else I can say but that this film is just one of the worst movies I have ever seen... Maybe it is just the sugar-sweetness of it. The looks the characters exchange, the way they are dressed, combed, the way the camera moves... it just gives me the creeps of surreality! The writing is mediocre and I wanted to stop watching it however kind of hoped it is going to get better during the movie... it did not. It just got more and more honey-romantic... without any substance. I cannot say that the characters were interesting or engaging. Brendan Bradley is just looking really weird with his puppy eyes and holding his elbow - which I suppose should be a character tick of some significance (maybe his insecurity and innocence) but it just makes me wanna shake that man to his senses! I kind of liked the way the writers put loopholes into the screenplay making it not all to laid out for us... oh, that was not intentional... ups... and there were like two or three moments of a light shining through the darkness of these dialogs but other than that - I had my vomit bucket prepared. One amazing peace: the harmonica! OMG! If you please introduce an element within the writing, make sure there is a significance to it. Also, make your actors practice it, so at least the one character bringing it in, has an attachment to it! Also, why the supporting cast was even there... no clue. This could have just been even cheaper movie without them. The mother and the B&B owner or even the brother (was he just signed up because he could get naked in front of the camera?). Oh, speaking of sex - I kind of surprisingly liked the undressing scene - it was kind of all what this movie was not - realistic. I am not saying there only has to be realistic movies but this movie was so off the charts for me I could not give it more than 2 stars out of 10: one for the undressing and the other one for the nature.