Bellflower is one strange ride "“ part romance, part apocalypse thriller, part coming-of-age drama, part black comedy. It's truly one of a kind cinema in the sense that I can genuinely say I've never seen anything like it. It doesn't always work and the end leaves something to be desired, but it's brave, gutsy filmmaking and, for that reason, it deserves your time.
Woodrow and Aidan (Glodell and Dawson, respectively) are two twenty-somethings preparing for a global apocalypse by building home-made flamethrowers and readying rides for their gang tentatively titled "Mother Medusa." It's this relationship that drives the story. We watch these two friends come together and fall apart, unite and unravel. Tyler Dawson steals nearly every scene he's in, turning in one of the greatest "that funny guy" roles of recent memory in a film that desperately needs some comic relief.
As the relationship between Woodrow and his love interest, Millie, develops, the plot heads speedily towards overwrought and angst-y. I wonder if I would have liked this movie a lot more back when I considered Fight Club a work of creative genius. It's not that Wiseman isn't a convincing actress or that Glodell is really terrible. The chemistry just never felt real to me. On top of that, the film sports a ludicrous and over-stylized ending, where all of the low-budget camera tricks, which were up until that point only used sporadically, come out in full force and I was left shaking my head wondering what happened that sent this thing spinning so spectacularly into crazy mode.
Like I said before, Bellflower deserves serious credit for being so unique "“ it was one of the standouts in terms of visual style at this year's Sundance festival "“ but it's not quite the masterpiece it's being touted as. Check it out if only to support this kind of movie making. It may not be the best movie of the year, but it's a fantastic debut for Glodell and certainly stands out in this summer's crowd of mediocrity.
