"Greener Grass" is both an absurdist film as well as a weird allegory about consumer culture in the West. While it clearly is making fun of suburbia and the need for many to keep up with their neighbors, so much of the story is nonsensical and confusing....deliberately so.
The film mostly centers on two women...as well as the folks around them. Most seem to have no real emotions and act much like robots or folks from "The Stepford Wives". As for their behaviors, they all seem very random and bizarre or they simply do what their friends suggest or what will make them look good to their friends. For example, early in the film when one woman admires another's new baby...she just gives it to her. Later, the baby is confused with a Golden Retriever and so the family just assume the child changed. They are confused when it is kicked off out of the soccer game as well as the school's math team. Another time, a woman wants another baby...and she puts a soccer ball under her clothes to simulate pregnancy. When it's 'born' she names the soccer ball 'Wilson' and folks admire the new baby. Then, there's the young kid who acts as if he's possessed and he's mean, curses and is abusive. There's plenty more....but suffice to say that it really never makes any sense in this bizarro world.
While I am sure the film is making fun of suburbia, it is so over the top and nonsensical that that message is soon lost. Also, the film simply suffers from there being too much weirdness and randomness that the story gets a bit dull and I felt myself losing interest. Originally, it was a short film and I think the momentum is such that a full-length story like this is simply too much for most folks to enjoy. A case where shorter is better.
The film mostly centers on two women...as well as the folks around them. Most seem to have no real emotions and act much like robots or folks from "The Stepford Wives". As for their behaviors, they all seem very random and bizarre or they simply do what their friends suggest or what will make them look good to their friends. For example, early in the film when one woman admires another's new baby...she just gives it to her. Later, the baby is confused with a Golden Retriever and so the family just assume the child changed. They are confused when it is kicked off out of the soccer game as well as the school's math team. Another time, a woman wants another baby...and she puts a soccer ball under her clothes to simulate pregnancy. When it's 'born' she names the soccer ball 'Wilson' and folks admire the new baby. Then, there's the young kid who acts as if he's possessed and he's mean, curses and is abusive. There's plenty more....but suffice to say that it really never makes any sense in this bizarro world.
While I am sure the film is making fun of suburbia, it is so over the top and nonsensical that that message is soon lost. Also, the film simply suffers from there being too much weirdness and randomness that the story gets a bit dull and I felt myself losing interest. Originally, it was a short film and I think the momentum is such that a full-length story like this is simply too much for most folks to enjoy. A case where shorter is better.