Prince Avalanche (2013)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Blistering performances.

Prince Avalanche (2013)I know this is meant to be a small, touching, offbeat film that charms and infiltrates the heart. But I found it a huge bore. I could never get over the threshold to connect with the characters, as likable as they are. The dialog is nice in a down home normal kind of way, and the two guys have a rapport which really might have a kind of resonance in a different setting.The setting is quirky, off in the hinterlands of Texas, doing road crew work. So basically the two young men are alone. Usually they talk about little, or nothing, but now and then they get around to their faltering love lives back in the city. The light cuts across the scrubby tress, the road is narrow and forlorn, the air must smell good. It's a weird kind of heaven, and yet things are so wrong, too. Which is life, after all.Now I may as well mention that the main character is Paul Rudd, who is a terrific actor. And I suppose he is terrific here, but can't lift up the thin world of the script all by himself. Emile Hirsch plays against him in this not-buddy story, and he's believable, too, so it isn't the acting that stifles.Director David Gordon Green is also the writer, and I think as an Indie comedy there are things going on here some people might really click into. But you'll know in the first ten minutes what you're going to get in the following eighty. Give it a look and listen.

It's 1988 and wildfires have ravaged the Texas countryside. Alvin (Paul Rudd) took a job to paint the lines on the road to get away from the world. He takes his girlfriend's slacker brother Lance (Emile Hirsch) along for the job. Alvin doesn't see much in the sex obsessed Lance, and Lance is chaffing at the isolation.This is a very small indie with basically the two main actors in most of the scenes. These are two good actors with a lot of sex talk, relationship struggle, and an aimless story. There are a couple of chuckles and a few interesting scenes. However they are too few and far between. It doesn't have the energy of a road movie or the poignancy of a relationship story. The last third turns up the heat, but it quickly becomes silly. I think there is a good half-movie here. The rest of this doesn't have enough energy. It's very subdue.

Two guys, one young and the other older, are tasked with painting the dividing line on a new road through a now burnt out forest. They are the only one there and must contend with each others habits and thoughts.As the story develops we discover there is a common link between these two and that link is the young guys (Lance) sister who is dating the older guy (Alvin). Alvin sees himself as confident and educated. Lance is too young to know himself yet.By the end of this story Alvin and Lance are like the burnt out forest, each suffers a defeating reality in life just as the forest has suffered. But even in the devastation of the now ruined trees we see life coming back. The forest and the houses will return but not as before! The past is done with, as seen with the lady seeking her past in the ashes of her destroyed house. She is the forest! It might be destroyed now but it lives!Lance & Alvin toss out their past into the creek. Their differences, anger and disappointments mended and a new adventure starts. As they drive away they pass children playing with chickens - human and animal life are already finding their place along the road through the forest.

For those willing to try something different, you may find some value in this independent film. I thought the movie offered some quirky dialogue, characters, and situations, in its' own quiet way.Set in 1988, in the wooded areas of central Texas, near Garland, and not long after the devastating forest fires of the previous year in that section of the state. It's pretty much a two character film with Paul Rudd, making a change from the over-the-top lewd and crude of the Apatow-like movies, playing Alvin, who has left a serious relationship with a woman named Madison to "find himself" in the solitude of his new job in the forest. They still communicate by letter and he sends her money, as well as studying German language tapes so they can eventually re-unite and travel to Germany.Alvin is the head of a two person stripe-crew (painting yellow lines along the roads of Texas) and has recently hired Madison's brother Lance as his assistant. Lance is portrayed by the talented actor Emile Hirsch, and is quite different personality wise from Alvin. He doesn't take the job very seriously, doesn't even like the outdoors, and is always horny.I thought both Rudd and Hirsch performed quite well in their roles. Not everything works here, and sometimes the dialogue between the two seems flat and awkward. However, there's also lots that does work here and the rapport between them, even when they're bickering and arguing can be quite enjoyable. The late actor Lance Legault also adds some good comic relief in his role of a grizzled truck driver traveling the roads that Alvin and Lance are working.One thing I particularly liked in the movie was the atmospherics and solitude allowed by the versatile director and writer David Gordon Green (Snow Angels, Pineapple Express) to just leisurely unravel at its own pace. It's unusual in today's film. It's not for everyone, but for those with the patience there can be definite rewards here.