Matchbook Morning (2005) User Reviews

An excellent beginning

[friendly-6 · 10/10 · 14 July 2006]

Matchbook Morning should be viewed by any student or fan of film as a resounding success. I applaud Mr. Tweed's skill as a writer, directer, and especially producer for his effort in bringing this project together and getting it seen and talked about. Ultimately, Mr. Tweed alone was responsible for the guts, determination, and leadership ability it took to turn an idea into something real, and that is what an artist does and what critics cannot.

If watching Matchbook Morning does not make you feel that you are present for the beginning of a great career, you clearly missed the most interesting subplot of the film - the one behind the camera.

Balancing

[katie-l-cox · 23 May 2006]

In response to the "Pretentious, Dull..." comment above, and in order to give more balance to the comments given on this film, it is important to remember that while Matchbook is a rough production, it received countless praises from professionals who have studied and worked in the film industry for many years. This film also won "Best Student Feature" at the Script-2-Screen Film Festival in Oklahoma in the fall of 2005. Matchbook has its undeniable faults. The writing isn't bad, but the execution wasn't great, and some of the acting is definitely sub par. Still, it is a noteworthy student production, and its accomplishments should be recognized.

Pretentious, Dull And A Complete Waste Of Time

[slacker448 · 1/10 · 21 February 2006]

To begin, and to be brutally honest, this film is absolutely terrible. Even for a movie made by college kids, with limited time, budget, equipment and resources, this is still an absolutely horrible film. I am sad to say that while I was in college, I helped work on this film and am therefore privy to certain inside information. Basically, if we judge this movie as an independent film made by students we can forgive certain flaws, but only to a point. Ignoring other flaws, this movie completely fails at the basic level of any movie, and by that I mean the story.

The story for this film is awful. In a nutshell it chronicles the four separate problems of angst filled 20 something's in four separate stories, and then tries to connect the stories together with a confusing, pretentious and pseudo-intellectual metaphor of an author writing a book. Besides the fact that this plot format has been done to death and is already cliché, each story itself is a teenie bopper cliché. These include teen pregnancy, over coming a failed dream, suicide and depression and finally an unachievable love. In each story there is no real character or story development, no dramatic buildup, no real climax and finally no resolution. Not to mention the pacing is agonizingly slow and the dialogue is terrible and each story is just plain boring. Basically this movie offers nothing new or insightful nor does it even portray old ideas in an entertaining or original manner.

It was my idea during the initial pre-production of this film to focus one on interesting developed story rather than four under developed ones, but as the original idea of a group project was hijacked by three egomaniacs, group input ceased. Also, Tweed the director was completely unresponsive and outright hostile to any real criticism or suggestions. So, what we are left with is the failed project of three egomaniacs instead of the group project that was originally intended. Which is sad, because the group had many good ideas as well as talent, but went unused. Also, as a director, Tweed fails terribly. His pacing and scene times are awful, he rips off tricks from movies such as "Requiem For A Dream" and when he isn't stealing ideas from other movies his camera work is boring. He also would not allow the films talented composer Calhoun the appropriate time to score the film properly, so what we are left with once again is the wasted talent of the composer.

How this movie even won an award at a film festival is beyond me, but I suppose that some artsy fartsy Indy movie people eat up this kind of junk. But even on an Indy level this movie fails. It is not high art or even artistic, it is not poetic, it is not intelligent, it is not new, it is not edgy and it is not cutting edge in any way. To sum it up, this movie is cliché, dull and pretentious because it thinks it is everything that it really isn't. This movie is a complete waste of time.

Just amazing

[GTweed0605 · 10/10 · 16 February 2006]

I was totally amazed that college students could create such a wonderful movie. Having the pleasure to see the premier and to watch the movie several times since I am absolutely amazed that college students had the time to do this. Most of these kids were full time students, some worked, and to create this in just a few months, what an accomplishment. The audience was very please, the atmosphere was great, and the standing ovation at the end was most deserving. This film has gone on to be a top award winner at film festiviles.

Those that have been negative with comments just do not have the ability to create only tear down. Shame on them. These type people are not happy unless they are complaining. How sad, they will go nowhere in life.

So to Brandon and the rest of the members at Drop Frame Features at NC State University, this is thumbs up for you, keep chasing the dream.

A start.

[tbdodenh · 11 February 2007]

I wouldn't say this movie isn't bad. I am not expecting a Hollywood feature, and Tweed appears NOT to want that part of his movie. Look folks, it's extremely difficult to make 20 minute film much less a two hour feature in college. Especially if you don't have a high budget. I appreciate his effort and his own effort has led me to my own attempts to do documentaries while still in college.

Positive of the Story: Damn good movie for being made by a student.

Negative: I wished the acting could had been just a little better. Remember it is the story which really keeps people in the theater, and not so much the crazy cinematic angles.