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craig056
Reviews
Illegal Use of Joe Zopp (2008)
Hometown Film without a Town!
"Illegal Use of Joe Zopp" is an independent film with an excellent conceptual narrative which is the dilemma of a young man who left home and has been presumed to be deceased. This idea was produced very well. The sound track is great and is a mixture of pop, blue grass and rock n roll. The film is in brilliant color and shot on a nice sunny day either in the spring or summer, not fall though. Joe has parents that are portrayed as "parental challenged" to put it mildly. The film has plot twists, crazy characters fair to very good acting with a standout performance from the motel operator. I can pause any moment in this film and compare the shots to a fairly video taped film which means that the cinematography is semi professional. So the question of why this film hasn't been picked up by Mirimax or a major distribution corporation like the film "Clerks" has is obvious. I see the fatal flaw of this film being pseudonyms town names. Even the main character changes his name to pseudonym. The small city that the film takes place in is called "Pure water" in this film when it was actually shot in Chippewa Falls Wisconsin with some scenes shot in Eau Clare WI.. For example, every fan knows that "Clerks" takes place at the "Quick Stop/R.S.T. Video in Leonardo New Jersey and fans of the film can even make pilgrimages to visit the actual store where the creator (Kevin Smith) worked at. By using obscure names and distant states such as Ohio the fan connection is made extremely difficult. In short the writers sabotaged this film by alienating the fan by obliterating the actual location. Creating a road to success is made very difficult if one knows not where it is. Craig Barr.