Garden Party

July. 11,2008      NR
Rating:
5.5
Trailer Synopsis Cast

Are you young, sexually confused, just trying to get by? Do you sing, dance or possess some other talent? Welcome to the Garden Party. At the center of the story is 15-year-old April. She is running from one bad situation into another, hoping to find an answer that doesn't involve taking off her clothes.

Vinessa Shaw as  Sally St. Claire
Willa Holland as  April
Richard Gunn as  Todd
Fiona Dourif as  Becky
Patrick Fischler as  Anthony
Tierra Abbott as  Lana
Christopher Allport as  Davey Diamond
Lisa Arturo as  April's Mother
Erik Bragg as  Dirk
Alexander Cendese as  Nathan

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Reviews

Lawbolisted
2008/07/11

Powerful

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Exoticalot
2008/07/12

People are voting emotionally.

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Fairaher
2008/07/13

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

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Philippa
2008/07/14

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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JÄnis Locis
2008/07/15

Even the rating of 5.7 for this film is a little too much. It is very poorly made as there is no premise, no action and no goal. Just a mixture of showing completely irrelevant characters living their lives, without much action. I almost felt that it was a horrible attempt of trying to compare itself to Pulp Fiction, of course was nowhere close to the classic.I wonder why is the movie called ''Garden Party'', yes, there was a garden party, which was only showed for like 30 seconds and was absolutely irrelevant to the film. Because of the song that kid made? Anyways, not enough to name the movie after that.Since it failed to make me care about the characters, i could not find it appealing to me in any way and got bored very quickly. This movie is only 88 minutes and that just shows you, that no matter how short the movie is it can be extremely boring if there is no action and no goal.The script is just weak, hence making the characters not look good even if they were not performing horribly. Anyways, dull conversations, no goal, no action, weak plot - boring.

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Claudio Carvalho
2008/07/16

The teenager April (Willa Holland) arrives in Los Angeles expecting to find a job and she stays at her lesbian cousin's home. Sammy (Erik Scott Smith) is a talented homeless singer, musician and composer that meets a guy that offers an opportunity to him to become a pop star. Nathan (Alex Cendese) is a young gay that has come to Los Angeles expecting to be a dancer but works as secretary of the real state agent Sally St. Claire (Vinessa Shaw). Todd (Richard Gunn) is an artist that neglects his girlfriend and spends most of his time in porn sites. Their lives are entwined when the pornographer Anthony (Patrick Fischler) meets Nathan and April in a bar and he offers two-thousand dollars to take nude pictures of them. Nathan befriends Sammy on the street. Sally hires April to work in her office with Nathan. And Sally dates Todd and finds that there are pictures of her in Internet."Garden Party" is a film with enjoyable but pointless stories in LA. The characters are likable but the neither the characters and nor the situations are well developed. The one-dimensional characters are shallow and the story goes nowhere. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): Not Available

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demaym
2008/07/17

Firstly, If you enjoy generic, safe, and predictable movies, like the ones 'Hollywood' often churn out, then you might not enjoy, or appreciate, this gutsy offering....As we all know, independent movies are rather 'hit and miss', usually because they push the boundaries, regarding the industry standard rules, when it comes to the directing, production and writing.When an independent movie gets it right, it can be overly refreshing and satisfying.The first risk that 'Garden Party' takes, is that it refuses to give the viewers a recognisable lead character to follow. Instead, the first segment of the movie sets up the premise for several diverse characters, separately, each with their own story and subplot. This is dangerous, for any movie, as trying to follow multiple amounts of plots at once can easily become annoying, and result in an overload, causing the viewer to switch off in frustration. Luckily, in this particular case, it works, and the stories, and characters, quickly begin to intertwine and link with each other.We are introduced to a homeless, pretty boy, up and coming pop/rock singer, who remains placid and confused, as his ultra rise to stardom begins out of nowhere, and he starts to attract attention from promoters, beautiful women, and artists. We then have a young, attractive girl, from a questionable upbringing, who is encouraged by some friends, to get into the soft core porn industry. A young man, who has forgotten who he is, due to being on 24 hour duty to his control freak boss, in real estate, and drug pushing. A ruthless, sexy, and manipulative business women, who does anything to get what she wants, with a soft spot for losers, who she can mould and control. Other characters include an obsessive rich pervert, a seedy photographer, and a pot head who with no ambition.The movie runs along, at a fairly fast pace, and you suddenly begin to care about each character and their individual story. Whether it be in a good, or bad way, you are waiting for closure on each characters subplot, which eventually kind of combines into one big plot.Sex, and taboos, play a big part in the movie, but somehow, and strangely, the movie manages to be quite tasteful, and although sex, drugs, booze and porn are frequently mentioned, it manages to be non offensive, with no real smut element. Its realistic.With a mixture of comedy, drama, and passion, this one should keep you entertained throughout.I like this movie because it has the guts to be a bit different. Exploring scenarios that most movies wouldn't touch, and generally going with the flow. This adds excitement, and an unpredictable element for the viewer.Great acting, interesting soundtrack, good writing, and good directing.I would recommend this film to anybody with an open mind - 8/10

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jfwong
2008/07/18

I liked Crash. I thought the interweaving story lines was subtle enough to not make me second guess any of the writing. The issues dealing with race and class differences was very compelling and brought me to a different level when I left the movie theater.I do not like Garden Party. Here we have yet another film about people living or moving to LA to try and follow their dreams. The problem with stories like this is the subject matter itself. The film has a smart premise, but I simply did not care for any of the characters.That being said, Garden Party is not a total failure. While the story lines that do join together are forced and many times just don't feel genuine in the least bit. But we do have small scenes of character interactions that are quirky, funny, and charming.The movie portrays LA a little differently than people see it as on the outside. Unfortunately for LA, the more real perception of the city isn't very pretty. And when a movie comes along trying to push that specific point, it better do it with some characters we want to care about.In the end, Garden Party is the story of how we struggle to live our lives, and how not everything is golden and happy on the outside. You might connect with some of the terribly stereotyped characters, but in truth the writing doesn't lend itself to a strong character development, the acting as a whole is sub par, and the story simply not believable. I didn't buy into it, but you might.

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