“When did you get so sad?” An under-the-radar (only 45 reviews), independent “slice of life” film that to me felt more like misery porn. Though it stayed true to the genre by having no plot and an abrupt, annoyingly ambiguous ending. I watched this because the cinematographer directed Banana Split, one of my favorite films. The stacked cast (imo anyway) just sweetened the deal: Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color), Ross Partridge (director-writer-star of the criminally underrated gem Lamb (2015)), Scoot McNairy, etc. On the positive end, it was well-made, the performances were great, and I liked the moody score. Now for what I didn’t like: I enjoy sad films, but this one was relentlessly bleak in a way I did not care for. The narrative revolves around lonely, miserable people that either gave up on their dreams or never had dreams to begin with. You had the directionless diner worker, the alcoholic diner owner, the selfish, disloyal trucker; the unemployed, freeloader foster bro; the cold, middle-aged Serbian diner worker that will never see her kid again… I think you get the point. Corey: We had sex your first night at the house.Francine: I was 16. I had sex with anyone that looked at me. Corey: Well some things never change. Ouch. And she didn’t even react cuz she knew he was speaking truth. I don’t mean to slut-shame or offend, but I did not like the lead character. My parent’s marriage was destroyed by a homewrecker (now my stepmom), so I did not appreciate this character consistently going after married men, especially the trucker who had two young kids. She also had a gross casual arrangement with a loser musician. Naturally, the “relationship” with the trucker went nowhere. The diner owner wanted nothing more than to have a good relationship with his daughter. He finally got his chance and he blew it in the most epic way. I won’t spoil it.The filming location was the cherry on the depression sundae. Let’s not forget the bizarre semi-incest, drunken foster brother-sister makeout session towards the end. Throughout the film she refers to him as her brother, yet he wants nothing more than to get in her pants like he did when they were teenagers. Icky stuff. In the end, Francine is shown finally moving away from her shithole town, yet I have no idea where she was headed or what awaited her. Perhaps I missed something because I had kinda checked out by this point. In closing, if you’re a glutton for punishment and you want to ruin your wonderful day with 90 minutes of unrelenting despair, I highly recommend this. I can’t personally recommend it to anyone else.
