And I Lived (2005)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Ryan Dacko

Writer:

Ryan Dacko (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Their love will break the rules.

Plot:

In a school of separate worlds, boundaries have been set and lines have been drawn. Their love will break the rules.

Cast

Lori Schaufelberger	...	Elaina
Matt Clark	...	Kevin
Josue Rivera	...	Reg
Kim Chesterton	...	Meagan
Mike Baird	...	Stan Buxton
Delaine Dacko	...	Susan
Kollina Dacko	...	Kara
Sue Pierson	...	Mother
John Pierson	...	Principal Thorsen
Jamieson McGonigle	...	Fall Guy
Ricardo Nieves	...	Popular #1
Kevin R. Mattice	...	Popular #2
Conley Sergenton	...	Popular #3
Tremain Harris	...	Popular #4
Todd Crawford	...	Rent-A-Cop #1

Runtime:

USA:107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

Rochester, New York, USA

Company:

Charger Films

Shows considerable skill, but no storytelling ability.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Written while writer/director Ryan Dacko was stationed in Antartica for the Coast Guard, And I Lived is at various times a teen angst drama, a parable about class, a love story, a long and drawn-out car chase/drag race and an excuse to put 1037 montages into one film.

If that sounds remotely schizophrenic, you don't know the half of it. And I Lived is incredibly earnest when it's focused on story, but devolves into a confused mess towards the end. Occasionally it takes place in a small country town. Occasionally it seems to be in the city. Occasionally, you'll notice the school building just changes for no reason whatsoever. Just like it can't make up its mind where it takes place, the movie can't make up its mind what kind of movie it is.

It's not to say there aren't things to like about And I Lived. Dacko (who also shot the film himself) has a good eye for composition, and there are quite a few shots that demonstrate skill at framing his actors in just the right way to emphasize his points. Then, right alongside the great shots will be a jerky hand-held shot that makes you realize how low-budget the film really is.

Visually, this does not look like a movie shot on under $20,000. Dacko managed to make a film that easily should have cost ten times more on a budget so miniscule that Robert Rodriguez would shudder. Aside from a couple hand-held shots that don't quite work and a murkily-lit climax, And I Lived looks like a million bucks and change.

The cinematography and the editing are top-notch. Based on look alone, the film is definitely worth a gander by anyone studying the art of film-making. The shot composition is fantastic, and the movie flows quite naturally most of the time.

Hell, they might not work thematically in the story, but the car sequences alone look like the budget was much, much larger. They do, on a budget, what the studio system spends millions on.

My one gripe with the film from a technical standpoint is that the director relies on montages to tell the story, instead of letting the story tell itself. So much time is spent on the sweeping montages that litter the reels that we really only get a few choice minutes to get to know our hero and heroine.

Unfortunately, it's the lack of a relationship with the leads that torpedoes an audience's enjoyment of their journey.

The opening act is where the film is the strongest, in spite of an pointless extended sequence where Kevin and Reg go to the race track. The moment where Kevin and Elaina connect over music is simple, sweet and beautifully shot (watch the camera angles to see how the distance between the two changes). It's as close as we get to knowing Kevin and Elaina as people. And it's almost enough to tell their love story on its own.

From there, the movie just begins unraveling. There's no illustration of the relationship developing between the two, only montages and the occasional shot of the two of them touching hands when no one else is looking. There's mention of them talking on the phone, but we see no conversations between the two of them. We don't see them connect more than a fleeting flirtation, and this makes every moment thereafter feel false.

On top of that, the script morphs from a love story into a massive brawl and then into about a half hour of drag racing and car chases that's supposed to be a fifteen minute drive to the prom.

Let's look at the race and chase sequence for a moment. Imagine that you're a youthful rebel who's decided to take your brand spankin' new rich girl girlfriend to the prom. Except it's supposed to be ending in fifteen minutes (but it's not dark yet). Would you 1) get into a drag race with some Moby-looking dude in a Ford Taurus or 2) get into a car chase around a mall parking lot with two rent-a-cops or 3) go to the damn prom and get it over with? Both sequences have no place in this film, and were included as an indulgence that wastes the viewer's time.

I forgive a lot of things in low-budget films. I'll be extra forgiving of bad actors if there was no money to hire real talent (Clerks). I'll forgive cheesy effects since there was no budget to hire a real effects artist (Evil Dead). I'll even give a pass to bad direction if the overall effect of the movie is good. Wasting my time, I can't forgive.

While there's some obvious talent involved in the cinematography department, And I Lived just shows how terrible a writer Ryan Dacko is and quite probably why someone shouldn't attempt to write a story about humanity when disconnected from it. He's a great visual stylist, but he's not much of a storyteller. That's fine, though. Because he shows such a talented eye for capturing the moment in his lenses that he could easily have a future directing other peoples' scripts (how many directors write all their own material, anyway?). With a great script and a budget, he'd be a force to be reckoned with. And I Lived may be incomplete as a story, but as a demo reel of Ryan Dacko's ability with a camera, it may open some doors.

For the full review of the film: http://tinyurl.com/2sced9