Beeswax (2009)

Fresh and Exciting

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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

Don't tell me I don't get mumblecore. This film is boring and I can watch avant garde films which are only static frames of buildings and I like talking films like Metropolitan. Nothing happens. OK, someone hit the record button and people move and talk, but it never goes anywhere. It's like being a fly on the wall at the most tedious hippie indie store ever, with people who act like they have something to say or go to rallies for equal rights in marriage. But those things they seem not to have a real opinion on. The struggles of the film are as follows: one of the owners of the store might be sued by the other but there is little to no development of that plot line, then the clerk of the store gets the tape suck in the machine but not in a funny way, just in a normal "I don't know what to do" way, later she is crying...but I am not even sure why...I think no one even cares to ask. Is that the point of this exercise? It reminds me of an unscripted movie like Paranormal Activity, but with no action whatsoever, no ghosts, nothing to talk about except the most banal things. No opinions. No ideas. It's not even shot that well. It is sort of like the director got people together, hit the record button and released whatever came out, because it would be mumblecore genius and someone would watch it. I watched it, but kept leaving the room to do things here and there, because it was like being around boring sort of liberal hippie college types that smoked too much to create thoughts of any meaning. The average person will have a profound thought now and then...or even more. If the director is making a point about reality TV and superficial people...it's been done to death, hundreds of times and better. People's heads are even out of frame for long periods of time. It's odd, but not in an intellectual way.I noticed there was a piece of the actual 16mm film in the DVD I got from the library. No one bothered stealing it because it might be worth something. It isn't! :)

An earlier reviewer, Dom-Donald, wrote: "There were no developed characters, there was no plot, no beginning, middle or end. There were no interesting relationships, no questions asked of the audience, no explorations of ideas or emotions. There were no challenging subjects, nothing shocking or controversial. Nothing actually even happened, so there were no events for the characters to even discuss. Even the relationship between the two sisters wasn't explored in any way."The movie just started and then a bit later it finished at some random point (the camera ran out of film?) .... I challenge you to watch it, for that is probably the only valid reason for doing so!" I accepted his challenge. He is right. The movie would have been better had they run out of film earlier. In fact the earlier the film ran out, the better it would have been.Another reviewer, Mike Mellon, wrote: "I'm having a hard time believing it was actually written instead of made up as the filming progressed. Pass on it, and instead, go eavesdrop on a random stranger's conversation. You will get the same experience." Mike is on the right track, but is not quite correct. I eavesdropped on some customers at a 99 Cents Store to test his theory. It was not the same experience. My experience at the 99 Cents Store was more entertaining and the strangers on whom I eavesdropped were more interesting.The characters in Beeswax were dumber than they would have been in real life. The aspiring lawyer could not have gotten through law school without a sharper intellect than his character displays.Like others who were disappointed in this film, I am not a consumer of mass market culture and I tend to favor the avant garde. So I don't think the people responsible for this film should have their artistic license revoked... just put on probation and be required to attend boredom management training, and make restitution. I think there are a lot of victims who want their 100 minutes back.

.... because IMDb won't let me rank it any less.Aimlessly directed and written with a ham fist, Beeswax is a movie that relies far too much on automatic indie film credibility and too little on making a cohesive story.I understand that this was meant to be quasi-documentary style, and film snobs might tell me that I just don't "get it" - that it's a slice of life, and that life doesn't read as smoothly as a movie script. But there's a REASON that movie scripts go smoothly: Because it's painful to watch a story like this get mired in minutia with no accountability for pacing or telling a complete tale.The cast did the best they could with what they were given, but this plays like someone's film school project. Self-indulgent, loaded with an unwarranted confidence that greatness is unfolding, Beeswax is strictly amateur night.

I just watched this movie, and I'm not even sure what I saw should be called a movie. It's seemed more like a voyeuristic peek into the lives of some unremarkable people. Watching it felt like being a bored fly on the wall. It was slow to get going, and once it did, I felt indifferent about the plot (what plot there was). It really was no more exciting than folding my laundry, and once I did start to finally take a little interest in the characters and what was happening to them, it ended with no resolution of the conflict. The only reason I'm even giving it a 3 is because the actors are actually rather good at playing the part of average people. Then again, perhaps they weren't acting at all.I love independent and low budget films, but the production of this one was just a waste of equipment and editing time. I'm having a hard time believing it was actually written instead of made up as the filming progressed. Pass on it, and instead, go eavesdrop on a random stranger's conversation. You will get the same experience.