Spiral

Shamble, like a zombie, down Memory Lane. The ghost of FF2007 awaits you.
AdeBrown
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Spiral

Post by AdeBrown »

Possibly just being bloody-minded (or perhaps over-bloodied during the course of the weekend) this was my number one favourite film of the weekend (It's a very close contest).
Pretty much a two-hander between Joel David Moore (Mason) and Amber Tamblyn (Amber), with back up from Zachary Levi as Mason's best friend, confidante and safety net.

Director Adam Green introduced this as a film about what happens when geeky loners have girlfriends.
Mason is a nervy, geeky chap whose best friend looks after him at work and tries to give him advice about women (they come from opposite ends of the spectrum of "handy with the ladies") and the film opens with a panic-attacked Mason being talked around after he phones Berkeley in the middle of the night saying "I think I killed someone".
We soon learn that Mason is prone to such attacks and his mate is both tolerant to his quirks and keen to have him around. But Mason is a talented artist and soon meets Amber at work. She's fun, bubbly and obviously likes him. Gradually bringing him out of his shell as he sketches her and paints her.
Mason's odd obsession with his art ("no one sees them until they are finished") becomes too much for Amber's curisosity and she expresses doubts about their relationship. This causes a series of breakdowns in Mason's life, and brings us back to a very similar scene to that we saw at the start.
But Berkeley's response puts a completely different spin on the matter ...
Very different from Green's "Hatchet" (also with Joel David Moore, who chose his friend to direct when he realised he would be too much involved in the central role.

A great addition to ANY film festival. If you are involved in a film festival, get this film signed up now. Hatchet has taken two years since its frightfest to get distribution, Spiral should put its two main men onto the next level.

Oh, two things from the Q&A, yes the pop song should be consigned to the credits and replaced with a moody jazz tune for the cemetery scene, and EVERYONE should buy the Hatchet DVD - for the film but additionally for the Dee Snider anecdote.
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Jekyll
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Post by Jekyll »

This is in joint first place for the best of the fest for me.

Simply excellant.
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Post by iam_dan »

another really great film...i loved it...great perfomances and yes you feel for the guy is there intent behind it...no i dont think so and i loved the song made for a complete change in theme for just a second...and im curious as to what the last pose is though ill never know
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Post by Guest »

I really wanted to like this movie - but it didn't really do much for me - sorry
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Post by Grindhouse »

This is one of those moments,like in the body snatchers when theres only one person who's seeing things straight and the majority are taken over and the one person is made to think he or she is the crazy one.

Thats how i feel about Spiral i did my best i really did with this movie, i feel that hatchet was good but because im new to frightfest i can see things a little more clearer objectively, i was sat watching this movie and it just did nothing for me i didnt like the acting the way it was shot the music the down beatness of it infact i walked out after nearly an hour or so it of just not enjoying a single minute of that movie,even the guy next to me wasnt sure about it and found it tedious,least he stuck it out thats stamina for you!

I dont think it was great at all and certainly not close to being the film of the festival, im just putting my head on the block here,for this adam green did well at FF last year and hatchet to me is just a movie thats fun and i can see why it went down well,so i feel that AG can do no wrong here at ff and thats what we should be careful of giving people false
reviews and saying how great it is.the emperors new clothes anyone.
still this is no way anything against adam i just couldnt gel with that movie,and i dont think i will.

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Post by Sarah of the Dead »

I've not actually seen Hatchet (and mostly focused on listening to Adam talking during the DVD commentary, though I watched some of the splatter at the Friday screening) but I really liked Spiral.
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Grindhouse
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Post by Grindhouse »

i still dont think any better of spiral and it left me with a real downer on the film,nothing but bad memories of that film.
still you cant help but be inspired by adam green.
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Sarah of the Dead
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Post by Sarah of the Dead »

Ha, I didn't expect it would. You're entitled not to like something. I'm just saying, I really liked it.
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jonbly
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Post by jonbly »

So much better than Hatchet. There are characters! And sets! And a plot!

And yet... it didn't quite grab jonbly. Close, but not quite. Perhaps it was too long, or too slow, or too downbeat?

The jazz score was a nice change.

Does the title make sense to anyone? Mason doesn't actually get any more or less crazy during the movie, so why 'Spiral'?

6.5/10
Last edited by jonbly on Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.
DavieT
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Post by DavieT »

Having read the outline in the Frightfest brochure I was really looking forward to this movie - however having seen it I have to say I was disappointed by it.

The big problem for me was the main character Mason. "Mason is a nervy, geeky, chap" ... as much as I tried to see this I just couldn't ... sorry but all I could see was an a very weird, obsessive, strange guy with an incredibly annoying clacking teeth thing going on at moments of extreme stress. The stalker-thing going on with the waitress at the start of the film didnt really help me in my view of him either. Given that I couldn't see why Amber would have wanted to be within 50 yards of him let alone get her kit off and let him paint her and sleep with him.

I really tried to "get" this movie and wanted to like it - I just couldn't.

Sorry Adam - you seem like a really great guy and I liked Hatchet very much but for me this one was a bit of a stinker.
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Post by maxmum »

Yeah, I must say I couldn't keep my eyes open for this one... that's not saying it was bad, I don't think it was, I just had one of those moments when you CANNOT keep your eyes open, caught about the first 15 mins (I hate jazz!) and fell alseep, then woke for the last 10 mins.
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Post by Reanimator »

As different from Hatchet as you can get and a real surprise - started very slowly but the characters draw you in towards an excellent conclusion
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Post by AdeBrown »

G-house, it's always risky to say you think that people like something for reasons other than they liked it. (Except those people with an Anti-Boll tendency of course). Everyone to their gout as they say in France.

I can see why spiral's not for everyone and the things that I liked about it would turn some off. It carried off the simple cast much better than Joshua. It was witty too.

I reckon the title was to do with the repeating cycle of relationships that Mason was going through - and of course the more obvious spiral sketchbooks he was using :)
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Sarah of the Dead
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Post by Sarah of the Dead »

AdeBrown wrote:I can see why spiral's not for everyone and the things that I liked about it would turn some off. It carried off the simple cast much better than Joshua. It was witty too
My boyfriend and I had the same/opposite reactions to Spiral and The Signal - "I can see why you liked it, but it just didn't do it for me."

Oh well.
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Post by lupogirl »

Agree with the comments about it being a slow starter. The characters do draw you in. I thought it was great geeky love story. The two characters were believable and which made this film enjoyable. My only gripe would the jazz. Not a great fan of jazz.

Any chance of Adam Green doing a commentary for this one ? :D
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