In Search of a Midnight Kiss (Alex Holdridge, 2008)

[AWA]

I finally saw this film, based on a recommendation from a great Woody Allen blog ( http://www.goodsmallfilms.blogspot.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ), which tracked the success of this little indie success thanks to it's comparison to and apparent influence from Allen's great "Manhattan".

While it may be some sort of irreconcilable sin to mention this here, I do have my own filmmaking ambitions and, while a long way from getting anywhere with it just yet, it is at the root of my love for film and my education lies in studying the greats... my reasons for coming here I find are often for the unique and (often) vastly differing perspectives on films that serve my understanding of those films. So, with "In Search Of A Midnight Kiss" being something of a celebrated little indie affair, I did some research into it and I found that it was made on the indie-model I've been thinking about doing myself for sometime... including it being shot in B&W (DV shot in colour turned B&W in post looks better than B&W film IMO, the one place where video can beat film in terms of image aesthetics).
Made for $12,000 (+$13,000 more for the 35mm print they had to make up for theatres and festival distribution), it features a very small cast and crew and was shot on a pro-sumer HD camera (Sony), which is also comparable to what I've been planning on for my own film ambitions. It has been quite inspiring to read about how well this little film has managed to do in terms of distribution, reviews, public response, etc as it has really gave me reassurances that there is a respectable way around the giant ugly ego machines of North American film making and distribution (for the most part, curses to OnDemand though for thinking North American audiences are so uncultured and stupid to think that we wouldn't want to see a B&W film).

Unfortunately, the version I got was the colour one that was put out on OnDemand by the US distributors who insisted on releasing it on TV in colour because US film execs are mentally handicapped. I was able to watch it in B&W though by desaturating my VLC player settings and tweaking the contrast a bit (iMac).

Overall, it was indeed a good film, I give it a 3.5/5 star review, though perhaps I'm being generous with my extra half star thanks to the inspirational background that this film comes with for me. Maybe not as great as some of the reviews are hyping it up to be.

The cinematography, at moments, was outstanding, although at other times still student film-ish... but still, mostly impressive. The acting was good, though rough in some places, specifically with the female lead, who had a lot of range to handle and cover in her very broad character, which would be a tough role for a seasoned A-list professional. Considering, once again, how this was made, she did manage to pull off a respectable performance that didn't sink the film. Scoot McNairy at times went from being merely good enough to being great, as some of his more natural reactions and conversations in the film, specifically the Woody-esque outdoor walk-and-talks, were very noteworthy and he brought much more to the character and the film as a result.

The story was a good one (Richard Linklater meets Woody Allen, the Austin connections shining through in the Linklater-esque film-in-24-hr-story), some of the walk-and-talk banter on par with Woody, very well done casual (and witty) conversations at times.

The main problem with the film that hindered it from being as good as it very well could have been was that it was quite crass, vulgar and immature sometimes, which conflicted heavily with the themes, ideas and general romanticism that the film aspired to, not to mention how it contrasted with the beautiful B&W cinematography. By constantly resorting to making off-colour sex jokes, the film really labeled itself as a great, top level *amateur student level* indie when it could have very easily just been a great indie film, *period*, had some of that dialogue been cleaned up and made less crass... or just have the characters' concerns be more than college students' sex lives. There were certainly hints that Holdridge knows how to write something more meaningful than cheap genitalia humor, though unfortunately I kept hoping part of the film's power was going to be a shift in maturity by the end of it, but the cheap toliet humor kept coming back, seemingly just as a quick way to generate laughs. I'm sure that in 20 something years Holdridge, who should have a nice long, healthy, productive and noteworthy career ahead of him, will look back on this film and it's content and be slightly disappointed that he infused a great idea with too much immature and completely unnecessary vulgarity.

Overlooking that and a few other minor amateur errors (little parts of continuity, editing, etc), this was a good film that certainly went far beyond the inexpensive means of it's production and does serve as a motivating factor for the still-emerging digital film revolution, if that's not too glib a word to describe the change coming along in the industry. The cinematography alone reminds one that with the means of professional level production values becoming more and more available, an aesthetic photographic sensibility will more than make up for the lack of thousands or millions in the budget. Shades of the great Gordon Willis are sprinkled throughout the film, and that is quite possibly the hardest cinematographer to emulate. The editing too deserves some credit - while certainly not without flaws, the editing was well paced, with some good cutting to help shape the film into something beyond the usual amateur cut and paste.

Outside of resorting to sex jokes too often, Holdridge still showed he was capable of writing good comedy and some good drama (though perhaps the morning-after ending was a bit predictable and melodramatic?). Some of the banter in the film was endearing and, dare I say it, "naturalistic". I suppose Holdridge deserves directing credit there as well.

I do look forward to seeing what these many talents will be able produce in the future.