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 Falling
Like This
Starring: Brian Vaughan, Megan Wilson, Patricia Clarkson,
John Diehl, Elizabeth Ruscio, Harley Venton and Karen Young
Directed/written by: Dani Minnick
Rated: NA
This
is a helluva find folks. The teenage wunderkind leads, Brian Vaughan
and Megan Wilson, are the Oscar winners of the future...Not since
River's Edge has a film spotlighted such talented actors
in the budding of their careers.
The
story follows one of those trouble kids that fancies himself an
"outlaw" when in reality he's just a petty thief with
a ridiculously self-destructive aneurysm. Boyd (Brian Vaughan),
the young outlaw, goes from misadventures to adult-time-serving
hoodlum in the span of a summer. He's frustrating. So much potential
wasted...
There's
one person, Katie (Megan Wilson) who believes in the nice guy
that dwells somewhere in Boyd's wounded soul, far beneath his
nonchalant loser-with-exponants shell...of course she is in love...and
love is truly blind. It doesn't hurt that this guy is also rock-star
gorgeous!
But
she loves his sensitive side and, right or wrong, allows
him to just be. She grants him a leverage most men would probably
be uncomfortable with. Her love is so deep she even goes so far
as to defiantly join him on many of his harebrained schemes for
entertaining himself.
As
Boyd and Katie fall in love, in that teenage never-gonna-part
devil-may-care no-one-has-ever-been-this-in-love style, you start
to get nervous. Ominously between the lustful mayhem, as reality
starts to call, you can practically see the horizon and its tell-tale
signposts announcing their futures...though there's still a loud
roar of a Shakespearean tragedy begging to be played out first.
The deep drama works thanks to writer Dani Minnick's heartfelt
pen.
With
Boyd's devilishly sexy stare, Katie will be lucky to escape a
life of wondering and waiting. As sad as it is, bad boys - less
our romanticized dream - usually equal nothing but bad lives filled
with government cheese and welfare checks while you wait for him
to get outta prison - again.
Falling
Like This often has you dreading what's next, holding your
breath, as it realistically and remarkably unfolds. The performances
by both Brian and Megan are subtle and wondrous. There are a couple
of bad jerky scenes - mostly in the hands of "Katie's"
mom, But for a film that obviously didn't have a huge budget?
It's a masterpiece of that rare kind letting film truly capture
the dismay of youth. At times the dialog and actions (in the hands
of Brian Vaughan especially) plays like a documentary it's so
precise. You start to feel angered at the indifference of some
and the contributing immature neglect from others. These are kids
after all.
Keep
your eyes peeled for this Brian Vaughan fellow...he's intensely
talented and uniquely handsome and frankly, in a few long awaited
years when this young man crosses the mid-twenties threshold he'll
be a mansteak of extreme proportions. No doubt he'll already be
a Hollywood mainstay by then...
Bluntly
Speaking? Both Vaughan and beautiful Megan Wilson should have
a fantastic award filled futures ahead of them. Worth
also noting is the hauntingly apropos soundtrack by Ani DiFranco.
There's some potential chart toppers within its delicate notes.
And director Dani Minnick does a wonderful job of letting her
actors command the screen. Find this gem.
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