In a stab at sports movie accuracy, real 10k professional runner and Dartmouth standout Alexi Pappas plays a nearly identical version of herself in TRACKTOWN.
In TRACKTOWN, the quirky superstar athlete (apparently an actor and writer as well as a 31:36 10k runner) shows potential on and off the track. And co-director/co-writer (and one of the Filmmaker Magazine's top 25 faces of independent film) Jeremy Teicher adequately helms the cinematic aspects of the production while Miss Pappas (playing Plum - a 10k pro runner with dreams of making the Olympics) is the main attraction.
The first 10 minutes of the film provide some authentic glimpses into female distance running (or at least it feels like it from my little knowledge of the subject).
For example, Plum pees in the woods with fellow Oregon Track Club teammate, hangs out in her altitude tent and shaves the necessary parts of her body when in uniform. She even zones out - looking at an ant on the track - right before the starting gun of her preliminary race.
Unfortunately, the film goes haywire when it comes to inciting incident and plot. The script - which uses an effective voiceover with Plum quoting famous people - quickly becomes irritating and misguided.
Character-wise, Plum starts to act like a confused 13-year old/poorly created/inconsistent version of JUNO wandering around town while we get a wiff of Richard Linklater. The film then does a U-turn and starts segwaying toward a mumblecore slash NAPOLEON DYNAMITE.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!
The main plot device - Plum having to take a day off from running - can't hold the weight of Act 2 and 3 and collapses into C minus material.
As a filmmaker myself, I will NEVER claim to be ever to make a better film than TRACKTOWN - please note.
As a critic, however, it became obvious that the drama would have been much more captivating if Plum had been injured and forced into retirement.
But it feels as if Miss Pappas and Mr. Teicher lack the desire to move into darker territory and their work suffers greatly as a result. The standard indie score can't fix a sloppy middle (a boring B-story and a love interest occurrence that is just plain weird).
And it's a darn shame. I feel like a strong script rewrite (which may have Hollywood-tized the content) or casting of a seasoned lead could have elevated the material.
(Miss Pappas, who is obviously a young woman of many talents, might want to stay behind the camera or write smaller roles for herself until she hones her acting chops).
In the final analysis, I commend the writer/director team for making a feature film on an outsider sport. That being said, in this instance, TRACKTOWN suffers from a lack of story fitness and can't PR on subpar storytelling.
Ted's Grade: C/C-
In TRACKTOWN, the quirky superstar athlete (apparently an actor and writer as well as a 31:36 10k runner) shows potential on and off the track. And co-director/co-writer (and one of the Filmmaker Magazine's top 25 faces of independent film) Jeremy Teicher adequately helms the cinematic aspects of the production while Miss Pappas (playing Plum - a 10k pro runner with dreams of making the Olympics) is the main attraction.
The first 10 minutes of the film provide some authentic glimpses into female distance running (or at least it feels like it from my little knowledge of the subject).
For example, Plum pees in the woods with fellow Oregon Track Club teammate, hangs out in her altitude tent and shaves the necessary parts of her body when in uniform. She even zones out - looking at an ant on the track - right before the starting gun of her preliminary race.
Unfortunately, the film goes haywire when it comes to inciting incident and plot. The script - which uses an effective voiceover with Plum quoting famous people - quickly becomes irritating and misguided.
Character-wise, Plum starts to act like a confused 13-year old/poorly created/inconsistent version of JUNO wandering around town while we get a wiff of Richard Linklater. The film then does a U-turn and starts segwaying toward a mumblecore slash NAPOLEON DYNAMITE.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!
The main plot device - Plum having to take a day off from running - can't hold the weight of Act 2 and 3 and collapses into C minus material.
As a filmmaker myself, I will NEVER claim to be ever to make a better film than TRACKTOWN - please note.
As a critic, however, it became obvious that the drama would have been much more captivating if Plum had been injured and forced into retirement.
But it feels as if Miss Pappas and Mr. Teicher lack the desire to move into darker territory and their work suffers greatly as a result. The standard indie score can't fix a sloppy middle (a boring B-story and a love interest occurrence that is just plain weird).
And it's a darn shame. I feel like a strong script rewrite (which may have Hollywood-tized the content) or casting of a seasoned lead could have elevated the material.
(Miss Pappas, who is obviously a young woman of many talents, might want to stay behind the camera or write smaller roles for herself until she hones her acting chops).
In the final analysis, I commend the writer/director team for making a feature film on an outsider sport. That being said, in this instance, TRACKTOWN suffers from a lack of story fitness and can't PR on subpar storytelling.
Ted's Grade: C/C-