Fresh and Exciting

Boring

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Since gaining popularity as a young John Connor in Terminator 2, Edward Furlong has done a whole string of B-movies. Jimmy & Judy is one of the lesser known direct-to-video films he's done and with good cause. From the cover this film looks like some modern version of Bonnie & Clyde and it's from the writers behind Natural Born Killers, so I was expecting good things. My hopes for a good film were immediately dashed when I found out that this low budget film was shot by the actors holding camcorders. I know some people love these types of films, but the constant movement just makes me sick. If that wasn't bad enough, as it turns out the story has basically no plot, as the story follows Jimmy's courtship of his parents friends daughter. The whole first half of the movie features a ton of sex and nudity and plays like a really high end porno, from there the story gets a little better, but not by much. It's your typical boy and girl falling in love in a matter of days and stick together no matter what happens. The performances are as sloppy as the actors amateur camera work, Eddie Furlong is one of my favorite actors, but he really had nothing in this film, it was lazy, sloppy, and just really didn't keep my interest. There's a funny scene here and there and most of us wouldn't say no to some gratuitous nudity, but this film just never came together as anything more than a bunch of shaky home movies pasted together, you really won't be missing anything by skipping this film.

There are times that Furlong's (as Jimmy) acting goes on and off like a light switch – probably equally as good as it was bad. Then there's Bella (as Judy) whose acting more resembles a strobe light, again with both good and bad performances, only in her case it's within seconds. 'Jimmy & Judy' really isn't an original idea, aside from, of course, updating 'The Doom Generation,' 'National Born Killers' and of course, 'Bonnie & Clyde,' to the U-tube generation – i.e. the entire movie was shot via hand-held cameras. And even that concept really isn't new – think way back to 'The Blair Witch Project.' So, basically nothing is new to the youth gone wild genre. We have troubled young Jimmy with an equally portrayed dysfunctional family. He's infatuated with Judy who doesn't like Jimmy, then does. Who doesn't like the camera in her face, then she does. Who doesn't like nudity, then she does. Who doesn't like the crimes broken by Jimmy, and then does. And on and on. We all know where this is going, as we've been here before. Though, as previously stated, Furlong's acting, at times, when he is at calm, that is, isn't too shabby and I yearn for more of that. I've been a fan of his from his Pasadena discovery for 'T2' through his typical young-Hollywood downfall. (SEE: LaBeouf, Spears and the late Renfro.) He still has potential, but chooses to throw it away. Hence, this character of Jimmy, probably hit a little too close to home. The movie does have some shocks – not to spoil, as it was foretold to audience, it was still a surprise scene when Judy's life of crime really begins.The #1 thing that did freak me out, as this mirrors the myspace/utube generation, is that I actually saw a true life story like this unfold on Myspace in 2006 in the case of Jacob D. Robida and his girlfriend on the run. It was actually a sobering experience reading the events as they progressed, reading the responses from the other troubled kids rooting him on, kill cops, etc. So, this movie may be fiction, but is, unfortunately, ever so real. (Google his story to see that truly disturbing and hate-filled minors really do exist.)

Jimmy & Judy overcomes it's limitations to be a film I'd definitely recommend even if intriguingly it points to greater things that it never achieves.It's the first time I've seen a film filmed entirely from a first person point of view and I found this very striking. In many ways approaching film narrative through this device is very fitting for our age. We are surrounded as never before by video cameras, on phones, on CCTV etc and we spend more and more of our time viewing the end products of all of this on the internet. It stuck me watching me Jimmy & Judy just how rich the possibilities are here, developed further it could become a new genre of film. These possibilities aren't deeply explored here, but none the less where they are, it's surprising who naturally they seem to fit into the narrative. We see this as a story told about Jimmy, yet he's it's creator. People are frequently aware that they are speaking to camera, yet somehow we feel they are being filmed speaking to camera, as if there was another camera there filming this. It's a tribute to the skill of the directors that all of this works as smoothly as it does.As other reviewers have pointed out another arresting feature of this film is the chemistry between to the two characters, fortuitously helped by the fact there was real off screen chemistry there as they actually ended up getting married in real life. Although I'd no idea watching at the time, this helps to keep their journey intriguing and watchable. Edward Furlong in particular gives it all with this character and as OTT as it can be it's all very watchable. I'd have to point out some great dark humor at the beginning to where Furlong's character films some scenes between Mommy & Daddy that really should have stayed secret – very funny.This is a great film and all the more impressive for being made on a budget of close to nothing in 15 days. However it's not without it's flaws. All things considered it would be nitpicking to go after anything small, but there are two things that stop it being in the ranks of real great film making for me.The first is that cliché of clichés in American cinema, guns. I know Raymond Chandler said whenever he ran out of ideas when writing he always fell back on having a man walk into a room with a gun. Perhaps it takes a non-American from the outside looking in (I'm Irish) to see it but characters with guns has become utterly tedious in American cinema. It's been cinematic shorthand for drama and angst since the days of film noir and while it's been reinvented successfully over the decades, it's formulaic in the extreme. So hence Jimmy & Judy's Bonnie & Clyde style crime spree becomes a little, how can I say this, done so many times before. People using guns, dealing with guns, or having guns seem to be in about three quarters of American films. Boring, boring, boring – can't you find some other way to talk about the human condition.The second problem is their characters motivation for this angst driven spree. The film has a brilliant monologue near the end from William Sadler, a sort of white trash Declaration of Rights that speaks rivetingly of alienation, anger and despair. It seems to form a sort of denouement, the trouble is it's nothing to do with Jimmy or Judy who seem to have grown up in nice, well off, middle class homes. It's a shame having established this brilliant level of passion in Sadler's character, something similar couldn't be found for the leads, but apart from their love for each other it never is. By way of explanation we're offered their characters social ostracism in school but given their reaction to it, it doesn't come across as convincing. So as watchable as their journey, given its level of alienation and anger, it's never truly credible or believable. Still that's not to gripe too much, as a debut this is excellent and well worth watching.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where I'd only first heard of it the very day I saw it. Seeing this dark, grungy low-budget independent movie late at night at a large-scale mainstream theater just seemed to drop in my lap. It was quite an experience. Only halfway through the film did I realize that this shot in my town. There's a scene where we see the profile of Rachael Bella in medium closeup as she drives. In the background, I saw what I had a strange feeling was familiar. Then, after she passes a few dead giveaways, I'm taken by surprise in finding that this film was shot in my city. Well, it was shot in the grimiest and seediest parts of my city, but it's my city. I then realized that that must be the reason why it's being shown at this mainstream theater rather than being confined to the Esquire or the Mariemont theaters.Jimmy and Judy is one of those relentless gritty and voyeuristic couple-on-the-run movies. It's reminiscent of Francois Ozón's Criminal Lovers, and even Baise Moi, which was scuzzy to the point of being pornographic. Jimmy and Judy is one of those movies that, in the end, is almost completely desensitizing and fixates your mind on a disturbing and morbid atmosphere that you'd rather it not be fixated on, and you end up being under its spell for the next day or two.That is not to say that Jimmy and Judy is not a well-made movie. It is. Otherwise, how could it put you under such a spell? Its effect is the surefire sign that it's done its job. It's about everything intriguing to that is to most people the underside of your mind. It's all about the effect of alienation, vindication most people only think of under the influence of serious bouts of anger, and other things that, in a movie, are not for everyone. Yes, there are many movies that tackle subject matter like this, but not to such a raw and overwhelming extent. William Sadler's character alone is one of the scariest and most realistic people I think I've ever seen in a movie.Jimmy and Judy is not quite at the status where it can be called a great movie, but it has a very clear message and a very precise and innovative way of conveying it. It-does-not-pull- any-punches.