Bloomington
June. 23,2010A former child actress attends college in search of independence and ends up becoming romantically involved with a female professor. Their relationship thrives until an opportunity to return to acting forces her to make life-altering decisions.
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Reviews
The Worst Film Ever
Expected more
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
I wanted to like this movie. However the chemistry between the actresses seemed non-existent.The storyline was lacking depth. The characters were lacking dimension. It all seemed very surface level and was a movie that lacked any real emotion, very contrived in certain parts. The acting was mediocre at best.It left you wanting...more. More depth, more emotion, something. I just didn't believe the two lead performances. Their connection didn't seem legitimate; I suppose that was the main issue, other than there not being any sort of plot development. It all felt very rushed and superficial.
It's not like other bad lesbian movies where one of the girls is tormented by her sexually or is surrounded by horrible people. Oh no, this movie is even worse! The main character is a bland college girl who falls in love with her sexually active female professor. And that sound SO much better than it actually is. I'd prefer this in a porno than in a freaking' drama! The "erotic" moments don't mean anything if its attached to boring characters who make stupid decisions. By that I mean, the main character goes back to her life as a boring actress on a TV show. And everything that happened means absolutely nothing by the end.
Though well intentioned and unobjectionable, Bloomington is undone by a fatal lack of believable conflict. For the most part, this film is as emotionally placid as an inland sea with flashes of hurt feelings and argument jammed in out of nowhere. I didn't sit through the movie just waiting for it to be over. My thoughts were more like "Okay, where is this thing going?" Followed after a long while by "Wait that's where it was going?" There are also several stray threads scattered through the story, making it appear as though these filmmakers were never able to take all the ideas in their heads and fully transfer them to the screen. Such an amateurish quality to the storytelling prevents it from fully engaging the viewer, but the very appealing presence of Allison McAtee and an overall feeling of earnest goodwill also keeps it from ever being annoying.Jackie (Sarah Stouffer) is a former child star who's gone away to college. She almost immediately hooks up with the scariest professor on campus, Catherine Stark (Allison McAtee). Though she makes an imperious first impression, Stark turns out to be a solicitous lover and an almost motherly companion to Jackie and they blow through flirting to full blown relationship as quickly as The Flash dons the costume he keeps compressed in his ring. Then Jackie gets an offer to be the lead in a movie version of her old series, which results in Stark turning into a rather large bitch. Jackie doesn't return the favor, but does get all bitchy with her seemingly inoffensive mother. Then Jackie and Stark make up but realize they can't be together. Yeah, that's how it ends.I don't know if writer/director Fernanda Cordoso was unconsciously working out any mother issues with this script, but the way Jackie's relationships with Stark and with her mother flip from sweetness and light to nasty and dark neither fit nor are justified by what's going on in the film. She could merely have realized that her greeting card of a screenplay needed some bite. If that's the case, it comes off like it was all tossed in during a last minute rewrite.Bloomington also has an awful lot of makeout scenes without managing to have one legitimate sex scene. There are a couple of times where it's indicated that someone is doing something below the waist which the viewer can't see, but that's about it. It's odd because the lack of conflict in the story would fit if this were a classy attempt at erotica. The lack of any bare flesh or sensual writhing therefore only draws attention to the paucity of plot.Though Sarah Stouffer is technically playing the main character, Alison McAtee owns this motion picture. Her performance is intelligent, tender and very sexy. Unfortunately, that does make it all the more noticeable when Stark gets pounded down with the Almighty Plot Hammer in the last half of the movie. I can't imagine anyone comes away from Bloomington caring more about Jackie than they do about Stark. And the young woman/older woman lesbian dynamic here is distinctly different from what you'd get with a young woman/older man relationship, giving you something to focus on when the narrative flags.This is a generic coming of age romance. There's been umpteen heterosexual versions of this, so I guess there should be room for a homosexual rendition. Like the straight stuff, though, after you've seen one of these you never really need to watch another.
the storyline is simple enough; a former child star,jackie who was on a hit sci-fi TV series grows up and decides to leave the show business and pursue an education at a local college where she starts mixing with her peers and getting to live life away from TV sets and other fellow actors. she clearly wants to live a regular life and start doing things on her own terms but gains un-wanted interest, admiration or jealousy of being famous by her her peers.while at a department mixer, she meets and is instantly attracted to psychology professor catherine stark who has a reputation of seducing her students. so it's not much of a surprise when these two start a secret affair. by all accounts, catherine is attentive, giving and caring towards her much younger lover. the two lead actresses had great chemistry and enough sexual tension between them for a believable relationship.while controversial student and teacher relationship have been portrayed on screen before ie. loving annabelle and madchen in uniform, this one is legitimate as both are consenting adults and this does not take place in a boarding/high school. jackie is an adult who has made up her mind to further her education and start living in the real world.i had read reviews where people were disappointed with how the storyline ended since both characters did not end up together. while attending school, jackie is offered an opportunity to reprise her role in the hit TV show that made her famous to the big screen. she is hesitant and un-sure if she is ready to make that step back into the show business as it would clearly change the course of her life and relationship with catherine which at that point is flourishing.i felt the ending to the film was left on a positive note and was realistic. since jackie hasn't identified her sexuality she isn't ready to go public with her relationship with catherine as it could possibly jeopardize and end her future career. this part is brought up in the film during one of the climatic scenes.i really liked the film and thought it was well-paced, directed and excellently acted.