The most original aspect of "Nowheresville", a low-budget comedy-romance, is the writer-director credit. Bishop Trout is the team moniker for co-producers Randall Harvey and Alex Mindt, Seattle-based filmmakers with several shorts and stage productions on their resumes.
"Nowheresville" made its world premiere recently at the Wine Country Film Festival in Northern California. Well-made and mildly diverting, the tale of friends, lovers and mates-to-be is predictable but sweet-natured. However, its commercial prospects are frankly nowaysville in a flooded marketplace.
"Like a river that don't know where it's flowing" is how one character describes love, quoting the Bruce Springsteen song "Hungry Heart". Unfortunately, one can't say the same for the scenario of this film, which opens with matter-of-fact philosopher Mike Mark Berry) introducing the small cast of players while dressing in formal wear for his own wedding.
Of course, the ultimate trick is guessing to whom Mike is getting hitched. Thankfully, the filmmakers don't overplay the gambit as Mike is mostly peripheral to the main action.
The primary players include manic, used-to-be-a-drunk Tom (Henri Lubatti), notorious for his dramatic approach to just about everything. In a seemingly healthy relationship with perky guy-saver Jenny Kim Tyler), Tom is set to pop the question in an elaborate scheme set at a Chinese restaurant.
Mike and Tom's best friend, Lillian (Kim Evey), are co-conspirators in a plan that includes a ring hidden in Ice Cream and the proposal inside a Fortune Cookie. In the days leading to the big event, however, Tom and Lillian realize that they have more than an intimate friendship. Maybe Tom is asking the wrong girl to walk down the aisle.
With supporting characters that are uniformly irritating, from Jenny's dysfunctional parents to a flower shop owner who goes ballistic when Tom and Lillian stand frozen and watch his store robbed by an old woman, "Nowheresville" rarely delves beneath the surface to explore what motivates the leads beyond their obvious longing for true love.
NOWHERESVILLE
Trout Films
Writer-director: Bishop Trout
Producers: Alex Mindt, Randall Harvey, Kim Tyler
Director of photography: Christopher Bell
Editors: Timothy Demmons, David Culp
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tom: Henri Lubatti
Lillian: Kim Evey
Jenny: Kim Tyler
Mike: Mark Berry
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"Nowheresville" made its world premiere recently at the Wine Country Film Festival in Northern California. Well-made and mildly diverting, the tale of friends, lovers and mates-to-be is predictable but sweet-natured. However, its commercial prospects are frankly nowaysville in a flooded marketplace.
"Like a river that don't know where it's flowing" is how one character describes love, quoting the Bruce Springsteen song "Hungry Heart". Unfortunately, one can't say the same for the scenario of this film, which opens with matter-of-fact philosopher Mike Mark Berry) introducing the small cast of players while dressing in formal wear for his own wedding.
Of course, the ultimate trick is guessing to whom Mike is getting hitched. Thankfully, the filmmakers don't overplay the gambit as Mike is mostly peripheral to the main action.
The primary players include manic, used-to-be-a-drunk Tom (Henri Lubatti), notorious for his dramatic approach to just about everything. In a seemingly healthy relationship with perky guy-saver Jenny Kim Tyler), Tom is set to pop the question in an elaborate scheme set at a Chinese restaurant.
Mike and Tom's best friend, Lillian (Kim Evey), are co-conspirators in a plan that includes a ring hidden in Ice Cream and the proposal inside a Fortune Cookie. In the days leading to the big event, however, Tom and Lillian realize that they have more than an intimate friendship. Maybe Tom is asking the wrong girl to walk down the aisle.
With supporting characters that are uniformly irritating, from Jenny's dysfunctional parents to a flower shop owner who goes ballistic when Tom and Lillian stand frozen and watch his store robbed by an old woman, "Nowheresville" rarely delves beneath the surface to explore what motivates the leads beyond their obvious longing for true love.
NOWHERESVILLE
Trout Films
Writer-director: Bishop Trout
Producers: Alex Mindt, Randall Harvey, Kim Tyler
Director of photography: Christopher Bell
Editors: Timothy Demmons, David Culp
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tom: Henri Lubatti
Lillian: Kim Evey
Jenny: Kim Tyler
Mike: Mark Berry
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 8/19/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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