Austin Film Festival 06–The Descendant/Whole New Thing

THE DESCENDANT

When a young man is told not to do something, it often leads to him doing it with more fervor than if he had never been told about it in the first place. That’s what happens when James’s (Tadhg MacMahon) mother dies. She told him over and over to never have any contact with his grandparents. He hasn’t seen them since he was three years old. He’s married now and is ready for a visit.

What he finds in the tiny Canadian farm community is more boringly horrific than anything in any movie I’ve seen since the original Pulse.

Actually, it’s not THAT bad, but it is a little bit on the slow and painfully drawn out side. The story here is a good one (and the twist at the end is interesting and for a good cause since it was inspired by true events), but a lot of what undercuts it is the acting. There’s not a single good actor in the entire film. And the dialogue doesn’t really help much, either. It’s pretty stiff and uninteresting.

What I think needs to be done with this film is a major rewrite and a reshoot with different actors. Then maybe it would be as horrific as director/writer Philippe Spurrell and co-writer Joel Asa Miller had hoped it would be.

WHOLE NEW THING

What happens when a home-schooled 13 year old gets sent to a public school for the first time? Hilarity!

Ok. Not really, but a very good movie does get made about it.

Emerson (Aaron Webber) is a brilliant kid who has already written an epic fantasy novel called The Fires Of Evermore. The only problem with his home-school education is his math. He just can’t do it. Oh, and the fact that he doesn’t know how to react to anyone but his family and their friends. But that’s always beside the point to parents who decide to home-school, isn’t it?

When his mom decides that their hippy, back-to-the-Earth lifestyle isn’t enough for Em, she sends him to the local public school. And he fits in really well with his long, goth hair and strange ideas about sex roles.

Can you hear the sarcasm? Good, ’cause I’m layin’ it on pretty thick. On the first day he gets punched.

The only friend he feels that he has is his English teacher, Don Grant (Daniel MacIvor who also co-wrote the screenplay). Unfortunately, he starts to fall in love with his new teacher. He doesn’t see it as a gay/straight thing. It’s just a “closeness” thing.

Great acting all around and an awesome script make this, so far, the best movie I’ve seen at the festival. I’m always amazed when a young actor is willing to go to the places that Aaron goes here and actually does it well with no self-consciousness. He’s very good in a role that, in lesser hands, would have been hard to watch.

Every character here has so many layers that it would be hard to try to introduce them all here. Don’s not just a teacher, he’s a man with an ex that he can’t get his mind off of no matter how many random men he meets in a local rest stop. Emerson’s parents aren’t just hippies who are out to save the world, they’re a normal couple with problems of their own that don’t necessarily include their son.

Whole New Thing is a great film that I hope gets some kind of success. It’s already on DVD in Canada. I have no idea what the plans for it are here in the states, but I hope that director/writer Amnon Buchbinder can get at least some sort of theatrical release.