Strange Frame: Love & Sax (2013)

Thanks for the memories!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This film could be considered edgy, avant garde, risqué, risky, new horizons...any number of things depending on your slant and agenda...depending on your definitions...especially of "cinema". This certainly is "art"...the human creations. But is it a good film? (in the context of who we generally think of good films). Just because a movie is...different....doesn't make it a great or even good movie. Okay...that being said- I found I did not enjoy this movie. And I like sci-fi, anime, certain CGI, etc. I can also appreciate someone taking risks. But....It's style is some sort of drug induced freak abstract just for the sake of doing it not for the sake of the story or film. And hey if that's all you want out of film then knock yourself out! As was mentioned the story isn't edgy or even engaging, there's no character engagement, I didn't feel connected at all, just kind of bored, especially with the forced pretentiousness of how I should be awed by everything, oh LESBIANS WOW!. Not. If animated abstracted lesbian lead characters is the claim to fame, there's not much to claim.Bottom line...I'm not going to discourage anyone from watching any film, but I'm not recommending this one either. Do yourself a favor, if you want to watch a great original animated rock and roll movie, check out Rock n Rule. It's the ORIGINAL real deal, and you will see it looks like they probably lifted some things from it too.

I have to question whether the film that I just watched is the same one that other reviewers here are labelling "visionary", "groundbreaking" and "unique". I like a lot of strange and unusual films, but there was just nothing terribly compelling to be found here.While I admire the film for it's same-sex love story and the director's attempt to employ young people domestically in its production, claims of delivering "a dreamlike tale unlike anything you've ever seen" quickly fall flat. The story rife with clichés, from the rich-kid-run-away protagonist, to her under-class rebel love interest, dystopian future setting, and the downward spiral into the world of rock-and-roll, sex, drugs, exploitation, and broken dreams. I wouldn't call the imagery anything groundbreaking. It was all reminiscent of Wizards and Heavy Metal, with lengthy, brightly coloured drug-trip sequences.I might have enjoyed it more had there been any attempt to evolve beyond the clichés... But there was nothing innovative to be found here. Vapid, one-dimensional characters and plot chug along in perfectly predictable fashion until the film's stereotypically cheesy "generic art film fade-to-black with indeterminate character fate"(TM) conclusion.Overall it can be summed up as a trippy stoner art film with sci-fi overtones. No new ground is broken here. Nothing new or innovative is explored or attempted. The characters and plot are all tired and generic. All the themes and storytelling in this film have been done before, and done better.

Definitely not for everyone. If you love the vanilla stories and characters of Hollywood Blockbusters, stay away from this movie. If you like to be spoon fed the plot points and donʻt enjoy digging in the subtext skip this one...but if you have depth and you like going deep, this is exactly what the Doctor ordered. I felt like the whole movie was a walk through some exotic red light district of the future with a soundtrack and voice talent to keep that mood going. Lots of homages to my fave films in there and some of my fave playwrights too! (Did anybody else notice all the Oscar Wilde stuff?)It is a wild ride, but not full of killing and mayhem: full of erotic asides, acid painted walls, poetry, rock and roll.Itʻs an indie movie, so spread the word if you can.

From the opening to the close I found myself in the constant motion of this film. Each detail compelled me to want more. Strange Frame is twisted and foreign yet the film maker calls me home. We have no earth but we have taken all the familiar virtues and evils with us to a new world. With unlikely heroes,gay, crippled, broken, addicted, colored and colorful I am totally under the spell of it. Abandon your prejudices and Strange Frame makes it easy as it weaves a cloth of seduction in your mind. It is a different way for the hero to get the girl. See it and come away humming the soundtrack. And by the way, that soundtrack is a cross between down home blues and sultry jazz clues. I cannot wait to own this film in my personal collection.