Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival) Director: Tao Ruspoli
Written by: Tao Ruspoli & Jeremy Fels
Starring: Shawn Andrews, Olivia Wilde, Tao Ruspoli, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Dedee Pfeiffer
The objective: raise $5,000 to get Leo into rehab or the charming user goes to prison. So he hits on a bunch of different characters to try to get the cash for rehab... Oh, and his brother, Milo, will film it in the first person as if it were a documentary. Easy, right? Not in this "inspired by true events" tale that talks out its premise in its opening scenes with more speed than the first line of this review.
As Leo, Shawn Andrews's drug-crutched character seems to begin with an aim to display more neurotic behavior than Saving Private Ryan's more-talented Adam Goldberg in anything. That said, the youngish thesp carries the film on his day-old charm, and warms/worms his way into a performance that alludes to greater talent, prompting some to figure out where they've seen him before (okay, he kinda looks like Adrien Brody, but the answers are City of Ghosts and Dazed and Confused), and earning at least some sort of interesting indie future.
Olivia Wilde, at 23, has had the more interesting career to date (The Girl Next Door, Conversations with Other Women, Turistas and TV's "House M.D." to name a few); and, while her visage is certainly appealing, the actress is burdened with a character who almost always relents to the will of others and comes so away with a credit on her resume that is neither here nor there. Fix certainly has the feel of a film made by friends for friends on the basis of ownership of a camera and access to some great locations.
And it is the locations that provide the film's vision. Beginning at 5.20 a.m. in Lost Hills, Calabasas, and winding its way into and out of the Valley, Downtown, Beverly Hills, Venice and South Central Los Angeles, this joy-ride to avoid jail-time serves as an honest homage to the city of L.A. and its diverse dwellers and landscapes. The lensing also provides an element of brilliance, allowing light to dance through the digital effects that add real value to Ruspoli's vision, and merit the behind-the-camera return of Ruspoli and his co-cinematographer Christopher Gallo.
The very nature of the beast that is the free-wheeling first person shooting format demands that Ruspoli appear both behind the lens as director, and in front of it as Leo's brother, Milo (who happens to be a quasi-documentary filmmaker). Despite the necessity of that contrivance, it is unfortunate that Ruspoli's double-duty gets in the way, as each word out of Milo's mouth exaggerates the exposition, interrupts the flow, and removes the viewer's ride into any sense of reality.
The final act is the key to this experiment and provides Ruspoli with some redemption. Relying more heavily on images and some really great music, and with actors relaxed into softer perfs, the last part of the film delivers moments of irony (selling dope to raise money for rehab) and poignancy (the reality that is Watts, the ghetto life, and the mess that was the South Central Farm) that give a glimpse of what could have been, and also remind this reviewer of the recently departed Brad Renfro and other young actors who've descended to the depths of drug addiction despite their gifts.
Photos courtesy of LAFCO and Mangusta Productions
http://www.fixthemovie.com/ |
