Movie Review: Generation Um...
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Zachary Mandell
May 18, 2013, 7:04:52 PM5/18/13
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Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Zachary Mandell
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Article Title: Movie Review: Generation Um...
Author: Zachary Mandell
Word Count: 767
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=1841074&ca=Entertainment
Format: 64cpl
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1841074
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=1841074
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Rating: R (strong sexual content, language, drug use)
Length: 97 minutes
Release Date: May 3, 2013
Directed by: Mark Mann
Genre: Drama
Stars: 2 out of 5
"Generation Um..." begins with John (Keanu Reeves) opening up birthday cards from friends and family he seems to be mostly disconnected from. He lives in a dilapidated apartment with his cousin in New York City, and he has no real ambition in life. He even pointedly says his life is so lame that he is now officially more disappointed in himself than his parents are, which says a lot about his self-perception and his honesty.
Although John doesn't have a large number of friends, he does have a small circle of close ones. Two of them are Mia (Adelaide Clemens) and Violet (Bojana Novakovic), two girls who seem as aimless as John. They are prostitutes who need to get drunk or high pretty much every night in order to deal with their lackluster and sometimes dangerous existence. They are clearly addicts yet neither John nor any of their other friends seem to notice or care. After he steals a video camera from a nearby flash mob, John decides to film Mia and Violet as they spend their day hopping from bar to bar trying to forget how much they hate their lives.
The long day that John, Mia, and Violet share together soon turns into night, and the two ladies try to steel themselves for another night of selling their bodies to strangers. They already seem mentally exhausted from their emotional releases that day, so trying to prepare for their soulless work looks twice as hard. The camera shows the weariness of the two characters as they get ready to face another night out on the streets. It almost seems unfair for them to have to work after the day they've had, but such is life in the big city. Before the credits roll, there is a nice little twist that reveals exactly why the three of them are friends that will likely surprise the audience.
In the age of checking your Facebook page and showing pictures of your daily experiences on Twitter, the characters in "Generation Um..." are decidedly disconnected from the rest of the world. It's as if they live in their own little bubble to escape how different they are from everybody around them. John may live with his chipper cousin, but he is hardly happy, even as he eats gourmet cupcakes and drinks good wine. At the start of the film, John has no camera, but he is followed by somebody with one. Once he steals the camera, he becomes a willing participant in the share-everything generation. However, as the camera settles in on the fractured girls, it is painfully obvious they don't share everything with the public. In fact, they barely share anything at all until they are high or drunk.
Director Mark Mann does a good job of capturing the alienation the girls feel through the lens of John's stolen camera. He frames all three of the main characters in a way that makes them look as if they are together yet still alone. The clever camerawork also gives a somewhat claustrophobic feeling to the movie, which adds more layers to the film. Mann must have sat down before filming and really studied what angles and shots would work to achieve these lonely, desperate camera effects, and they really do work brilliantly. By the end of the film, the audience will likely feel the pain and isolation of the young girls as they wander from here to there looking for a place to drink and do drugs.
In addition to serving as the film's director, Mann also wrote the screenplay before casting Reeves in the lead role. After watching the film, it really does feel like Mann may have written the script with Reeves in mind; the character of John seems to fit so well with how Reeves is publicly perceived. Some parts of the movie seem unscripted, as if Mann told his three featured artists to just go with it and see what happens. This is probably the core gem of the film-the fact that it seems so spontaneous yet it is very much a scripted film. It should be no surprise then that Mann had previously only directed one short film and a documentary, and "Generation Um..." has just that feeling of a documentary to it. It's almost like a hybrid docudrama that is immersive and interesting to watch.
About The Author: As a long time fan of Hollywood I was able to carve out the perfect career in the entertainment industry by writing initially for celebrity news sites and am now the owner of http://MovieRoomReviews.com
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=1841074
*********************** ARTICLE END ***********************
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Message delivered directly to members of the group:
publish-the...@googlegroups.com
*****************************************************************
Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Zachary Mandell
*****************************
IMPORTANT - Publication/Reprint Terms
- You have permission to publish this article electronically in free-only publications such as a website or an ezine as long as the bylines are included.
- You are not allowed to use this article for commercial purposes. The article should only be reprinted in a publicly accessible website and not in a members-only commercial site.
- You are not allowed to post/reprint this article in any sites/publications that contains or supports hate, violence, porn and warez or any indecent and illegal sites/publications.
- You are not allowed to use this article in UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) or SPAM. This article MUST be distributed in an opt-in email list only.
- If you distribute this article in an ezine or newsletter, we ask that you send a copy of the newsletter or ezine that contains the article to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1841074
- If you post this article in a website/forum/blog, ALL links MUST be set to hyperlinks and we ask that you send a copy of the URL where the article is posted to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1841074
- We request that you ask permission from the author if you want to publish this article in print.
The role of iSnare.com is only to distribute this article as part of its Article Distribution feature ( http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php ). iSnare.com does NOT own this article, please respect the author's copyright and this publication/reprint terms. If you do not agree to any of these terms, please do not reprint or publish this article.
*****************************
Article Title: Movie Review: Generation Um...
Author: Zachary Mandell
Word Count: 767
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=1841074&ca=Entertainment
Format: 64cpl
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1841074
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=1841074
*********************** ARTICLE START ***********************
Rating: R (strong sexual content, language, drug use)
Length: 97 minutes
Release Date: May 3, 2013
Directed by: Mark Mann
Genre: Drama
Stars: 2 out of 5
"Generation Um..." begins with John (Keanu Reeves) opening up birthday cards from friends and family he seems to be mostly disconnected from. He lives in a dilapidated apartment with his cousin in New York City, and he has no real ambition in life. He even pointedly says his life is so lame that he is now officially more disappointed in himself than his parents are, which says a lot about his self-perception and his honesty.
Although John doesn't have a large number of friends, he does have a small circle of close ones. Two of them are Mia (Adelaide Clemens) and Violet (Bojana Novakovic), two girls who seem as aimless as John. They are prostitutes who need to get drunk or high pretty much every night in order to deal with their lackluster and sometimes dangerous existence. They are clearly addicts yet neither John nor any of their other friends seem to notice or care. After he steals a video camera from a nearby flash mob, John decides to film Mia and Violet as they spend their day hopping from bar to bar trying to forget how much they hate their lives.
The long day that John, Mia, and Violet share together soon turns into night, and the two ladies try to steel themselves for another night of selling their bodies to strangers. They already seem mentally exhausted from their emotional releases that day, so trying to prepare for their soulless work looks twice as hard. The camera shows the weariness of the two characters as they get ready to face another night out on the streets. It almost seems unfair for them to have to work after the day they've had, but such is life in the big city. Before the credits roll, there is a nice little twist that reveals exactly why the three of them are friends that will likely surprise the audience.
In the age of checking your Facebook page and showing pictures of your daily experiences on Twitter, the characters in "Generation Um..." are decidedly disconnected from the rest of the world. It's as if they live in their own little bubble to escape how different they are from everybody around them. John may live with his chipper cousin, but he is hardly happy, even as he eats gourmet cupcakes and drinks good wine. At the start of the film, John has no camera, but he is followed by somebody with one. Once he steals the camera, he becomes a willing participant in the share-everything generation. However, as the camera settles in on the fractured girls, it is painfully obvious they don't share everything with the public. In fact, they barely share anything at all until they are high or drunk.
Director Mark Mann does a good job of capturing the alienation the girls feel through the lens of John's stolen camera. He frames all three of the main characters in a way that makes them look as if they are together yet still alone. The clever camerawork also gives a somewhat claustrophobic feeling to the movie, which adds more layers to the film. Mann must have sat down before filming and really studied what angles and shots would work to achieve these lonely, desperate camera effects, and they really do work brilliantly. By the end of the film, the audience will likely feel the pain and isolation of the young girls as they wander from here to there looking for a place to drink and do drugs.
In addition to serving as the film's director, Mann also wrote the screenplay before casting Reeves in the lead role. After watching the film, it really does feel like Mann may have written the script with Reeves in mind; the character of John seems to fit so well with how Reeves is publicly perceived. Some parts of the movie seem unscripted, as if Mann told his three featured artists to just go with it and see what happens. This is probably the core gem of the film-the fact that it seems so spontaneous yet it is very much a scripted film. It should be no surprise then that Mann had previously only directed one short film and a documentary, and "Generation Um..." has just that feeling of a documentary to it. It's almost like a hybrid docudrama that is immersive and interesting to watch.
About The Author: As a long time fan of Hollywood I was able to carve out the perfect career in the entertainment industry by writing initially for celebrity news sites and am now the owner of http://MovieRoomReviews.com
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=1841074
*********************** ARTICLE END ***********************
- To distribute your articles go to http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php
- For more free-reprint articles go to http://www.isnare.com
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