catholiclefty

At last, I get to see a decent film again! In Search Of A Midnight Kiss is a charming, off-beat, cute, low-budget indie movie that achieves something I thought altogether impossible - it makes Los Angeles look an interesting place that I'd actually quite like to visit. Wow!

It's shot in black and white - and for some not altogether clear reason, this seems a good choice. The story is just about the right length, and dealing with alienation, bad relationships, and just trying to get along in the modern world, while being both funny and touching, is quite an accomplished piece of writing. There's a raw honesty here that isn't overly sentimental, isn't mawkish, but just feels correct. The 'kooky, troubled' girl thing isn't exactly new (it reminds me of Chasing Amy, for some reason, though the similarities are almost non-extant) but it is achieved here with enough vitality that it feels fresh anyway.

There's no-one famous in this, but the leads Scoot McNairy and Sara Simmonds are both excellent, as are the various more minor parts. This is a nice film, that uses both character and location very well indeed, and it really was an enjoyable 90 minutes. 8 out of 10.

Surprisingly, I don't believe I've seen an M. Night Shyamalan film before - though if The Happening were typical of his fare, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. This is a muddled, messy, badly-acted film which evokes no empathy or terror whatsoever - though, like Prom Night, it does have quite a number of (presumably unintentionally) hilarious moments, especially in the dialogue. My favourites have to be the 'Oh No!' when people start shooting themselves, and the 'What? No!' in response to the old lady who says she's going to be murdered in her sleep. I won't even mention the conversation with the plastic plant, or the woman so keen to show off the lion video on her (mysteriously still working) phone......

Like Smart People, this doesn't do much for the reputation of so-called 'smart people', either. The science and the maths in here is risible.

Reasonable premise, terrible execution, with plot holes galore, all the usual stupid behaviour by the main characters, and poor pacing. And then the acting... Zooey Deschanel, sadly, deserves a special mention as delivering a vacant, wide-eyed, infuriating disaster of a performance. Which is a shame, as I actually like her, but she's awful here, even after allowing for an awful script and awful story. Mark Wahlberg is a little, but certainly not much, better - even though, apparently, he can act, there's not much proof here. John Leguizamo is... strange. Spencer Breslin should leave the acting to his sister Abigail, on this performance. Betty Buckley is ok, but saddled with a character as rickety as the rest.

While this could have been good, this is a disaster of a film. Some of the direction is ok (and some isn't), but there are so many problems with the writing, the story, and the acting, that it ends up an absolute mess. 3.5 out of 10.