The Age of Commercialism

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Jonathan Tucker is back from a six month rehab stint. His stepdad is angry, is mother is clueless, and he has relatives who (Ms. Jennifer Tilly, doing the 'maneater' variant of her persona) want to kill him for the life insurance policy. Overly earnest low-budgeter is so suffused with trying to be 'important' and 'meaningful' and saying something about addiction that it ceases to be entertaining in any way -- it is, in fact, something of a grind to sit through. Though it certainly means well. Cast is good and crew does the best with it's limited budget, giving everything a fairly good gritty blue-collar vibe. But really, the script signals all it's punches, with everyone speaking in a peculiar "writerly" arch kind of way. And it's positively righteous during the flashbacks at the rehab center -- no one doubts the sincerity of it all, but it just clunks about on screen. Not recommended.

I just saw this film on TV; it just ended moments ago. I was pleasantly surprised by the things brought out about people that exist everywhere.The only fault that I found with this truly great motion picture was the ending. I am not saying that all great films should have a happy or sad ending or it is bad to have an ending that leaves the thought, "I wonder" ...What I am saying is that playing fast and loose with so many, many constant flash backs and flash forwards, and then doing the same thing throughout the short, stark ending, can leave the viewer with no idea of what really happens or happened at the end. Is he back with the group session or is that another flash back in the last few seconds of the film?If that was the purpose, as many films have had an ending that leaves one up in the air; I am not sure that doing it via flash forewords or flashbacks, up through and into the last frames, is really smart movie making. It is like having someone spend hours or days reading a novel, only to find out that the last three pages were not printed. That may tread on ... I hate to use the word here on a great film, but here at the end I felt cheated, by a gimmick.Other than that I could not take my eyes off the screen.

This is a great movie--rent it on DVD as fast as you can....The acting is superb, and the writing is some of the best I've seen in years. Nothing rings false, which is rare in my experience. Jonathan Tucker, David Strathairn, and Jennifer Tilly all give true performances, and Ethan Embry is perfect. The setting--the locations--the music--all add to the atmosphere and pull you in till you can't look away. I want to see this movie again in the theaters, but I'll have to make do with the DVD for now... Never predictable, and achingly funny and sad at the same time. See this movie--if you have to go out in the freezing cold snow right now!!

A little dark- literally and in plot. Jonathan Tucker is excellent, as is Tilly. A little like the Roseanne Barr show without basal morals. Chunks of sad and chunks of funny. Like Tilly with the grocery delivery guy . I don't know what possessed Mr. Swan to write this because it's depressing. Hopeless people doing what fate programmed them to do?