BELLFLOWER is a movie that screened at both Sundance and SXSW earlier this year. I saw it at the later. And I hated it. OK, hate is probably not fair. I actively loathed this movie. I can’t remember the last time a movie moved me to the point where I had to restrain myself from booing.
It’s a movie, as I said in my review, that is the work of some talented individuals that will go on one day to make movies far better than BELLFLOWER (I can’t imagine them making movies any worse). It’s also a movie that provokes a lot of feeling. I hated it but many people at SXSW whose opinions I greatly respect, absolutely loved it. And I’ll give the film that much. It’s polarizing in a way that few movies are these days. There’s so much…mediocrity in movies (see: THOR), even though I didn’t care for this movie, I respect that it provoked such a strong emotion within me.
You may have seen the movie promoted with the “Medusa” muscle-car – it’s once again on display in this trailer, along with the flame thrower that the two male characters are building. The only problem is both of those things are fairly minor as far as the film goes. Don’t expect to see a lot of Medusa or flame-throwing in this movie. In fact, I haven’t year described the movie to you and I wonder what most people would think this movie is about just having seen the trailer. It’s not a great trailer but then again a movie like BELLFLOWER isn’t really conducive to your normal trailer (I’m still not even sure what the film is “about”).
[To be completely fair, it’s possible that BELLFLOWER has gone through some additional editing once it was picked up by Oscilloscope post-SXSW. If so, I’d gladly revisit this film and possibly revise my earlier review.]
Check it out below and see what you think…