Buster's Mal Heart (2017)

You won't be disappointed!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I only knew Rami Malek from the series Mr. Robot, but that one I didn't really liked it. In this movie Rami Malek plays the character Jonah/Buster, from a hotel concierge to a fugitive. He encounters The Last Free Man played by DJ Qualls, and from then on he has a different view of society. Without going into details to not spoil the movie, it's an interesting story to watch, certainly if you like people that want to live off the grid. The story is building up slowly and more and more become clear. I just wished there would be a better explanable ending to it. That would have made the movie better. But it's not a bad movie at all.

The kind of film that looks slick, looks promising and keeps that carrot of possibility hanging out there in front of your eyeballs, reel after reel. There's wonderfully unique Rami Malek, certainly bringing his odd intensity to the character, sleepy as he is for the first half hour...oppressively so. He's the only actor I know who can just stare straight ahead, not move a muscle in his face and yet you still feel his intensity. Likewise DJ Qualls is well cast, but even the strength of the cast or the beautiful cinematography or what sees to be a jigsaw puzzle of a storyline, while they all give you the impression that these elements and the fragmented stories will somehow interlock and combine in some clever way that you will eventual get some satisfaction out of spending an hour and a half (a very LONG hour and a half). It doesn't. It just gets more and more confusing by the minute. Now, I don't demand a sweet "WOW" moment where the light bulb goes on like in SIXTH SENSE, but I certainly don't want to be left thinking, did I fall asleep and miss some crucial parts of this movie? Sorry, there has to be enough meat in a storyline, even if it's fragmented and splatter all over the non-linear landscape of the film or even if it is just some intellectual hook that I can hang a bit of rational understanding on -- I don't need a point A to point B story, but please give me something more that just a slick Rorschach test. Don't leave me just guessing, is there really just one sleepy guy, or maybe a guy and a stranger (although the stranger certainly is physically similar to Jonah that you could entertain that he is an imaginary stranger; is Buster really Jonah, come to think of it, what real and what is imaginary. Does anyone REALLY get murdered? When the Sheriff asked to have Jonas work with a sketch artist, I know that along with me, everyone else in the theatre was SURE the sketch would look EXACTLY like Jonas, but I was even denied that tidbit of an "Oh, I see.." moment. I even started pondering if there was some significance in that the word MAL in the title had the same letters as does Remi's last name: MALek -- that's how desperate I was to find some connections. I am not saying it's not worth the watch, but just saying it is unnecessarily an unsatisfying one.

Everybody, well almost everybody, needs a job. We need money, food, shelter, some gizmos, maybe get laid once in a while. This movie proves my point. People make movies like this because they need the money, the exposure, the opportunity or just to hang in the industry. Outsiders and newbies have to break in somehow. Other people with money want to give it to people with an idea for a movie. They all come together, work for a while, money gets passed through the industry jobs and bingo! out pops … something. Maybe good, mostly mediocre, occasionally amazingly incoherent and bad. Guess where this movie lands? Yes, thats right. Amazingly bad. But it fulfilled its deeper purpose of keeping the Industry Wheels turning. And people had jobs for a while. So I give it two stars because even crud like this keeps the industry alive.

On the whole, there just wasn't enough happening in this film to keep it interesting. For the most part, the development of the story is slow on uneventful. As we plod through the aspects of Buster's life we see it unfold from two sometimes three perspectives. Most of what happens doesn't benefit the story in any way and really should have ended up on the cutting room floor.Even the premise that centres the story for our main character Buster is shaky and 'out there'. It's not explored, expanded or explained in any more depth than when it is initially encountered, so never really gains traction as a focal point for the film. Its really the story of a bum living on the edge because the pressure placed on him from trying to support a family in a difficult situation. There is plenty of meaningless symbolism, especially once you get two thirds in, that does little to shed any light on the story or provide any additional interest.I think this is yet another one of those self indulgent productions born from a good basic idea, that was under prepared, underdeveloped, and hastily assembled through lack of clarity and objectivity.One of the unfortunate developments of modern film making is that any idiot with a few bob and a HD camera can now make a film. Modern technology and the digital age has opened up the creative market such that many with little more than an ounce of self proclaimed talent can make a film. This is good in some ways as certainly those with potential have an avenue into film making that was previously open only to those with financial backing, contacts, or deep pockets. The flip side is that it opens the doors to wannabe film makers who have no business releasing half baked content. The checks and balances that kept such releases from swamping our screens have been replaced by a highway of freedom for every man and his dog to flood us with Sub par releases that aren't worth the devices they're filmed on... but I digress.The Acting is actually quite good, and the direction (I think) is also half decent. I think its maybe the producer/writer, who just hasn't really given the story enough meat to cover the bones of the production, which is a bit of a shame really because (as we so often hear) it has at least 'some' potential.That said, it isn't half bad. You could certainly do a lot worse with an hour and a half to spare.