Bravetown is a coming of age tale centering around Josh, a gifted DJ from NYC who's trying to find his own space in the world and not quit managing. He's angry about his life, his mother, no real connections, he acts out and does drugs to cope.
When one act goes too far, and he's pushed the limits of the justice system, a judge orders him to be remanded to his dead-beat dad who lives in a small midwestern town.
There, Josh tries to find his place again and does so by using his DJ skills to help the local dance team and maybe, make connections he's never been able to find.
Okay. Yeah...so like a lot of reviewers have already stated: the movie has everything as well as the kitchen sink-- 1) Coming of age story 2) City boy dumped in a small town 3) War town 4) Dance-a-thosn 5) Teenage romance 6) Grief, pain, trauma, avoidance, etc
And much more!
When you have too many themes and subplots, you can't remotely address any of them very well. Or at all. A few were touched upon and then jerked away.
This movie had some surprising actors in it--Laura Dern, Tom Everett Scott, Josh Duhamel, and Maria Bello--but they were woefully underutilized but did elevate the story and helped out the overall movie.
The main premise is that Josh is closed off due to his mom resenting him being born and not appreciating all that she had to do/give up for him when his own father abandoned them. That was one theme that is the backbone to the film but NEVER gets explored or explained at all. Then we have that whole dance angle that took up 75% of the movie...which, ok, fine, but why did it have to take up so much of the film? The dance/music/DJ element wasn't really well incorporated into the overall plot even though it's the vehicle in which Josh learns to open up, be vulnerable, and talk about the really crappy things that have happened to him. It's just not handled very smoothly or fleshed out enough and came off very disjointed.
There are several scenes of Mary's mother that suffers from depression due to losing her eldest son to war and drowning in the past. That was supposed to be a message about something but it was almost like its own story line that never truly fully connected to the rest of the story, the character Mary, or anything at all.
It's just all these hints at all these random themes shoved into one, short movie. There is little resolution to anything of the open-ended everything. Was there 'some' character growth. Yes, but we don't really get to see how that growth progressed in a coherent way. It just happens, you see it, but there's no explanation. Everything is just kinda vaguely told to you.
What makes this movie more than a few stars is that the acting of the male lead. While his character's limited, the actor did what he could to give some depth but it would have been nice to know more about Josh, not just random scenes of him doing random things.
The touch and go introductions of grief and pain that the female lead, Mary, feels as well as Josh's mandated shrink, Alex, were the most poignant but again, loosely tied to the plot and the indirect effect it has on Josh.
Ultimately, it's a generic, Hallmark type movie that's meant to uplift you but because of all the staggering issues with the plot/script/directing, it's hard to really to come away with 'yeah, that was a tearjerker drama to remember', it's more like, 'what a mess, had potential, but seriously, what a mess!'
I don't regret it. I did like the performances of the most of the cast and when it succeeded, it did well enough. Because there were so many elements at play, could watching it again help me see through the clutter? Me thinks not.
When one act goes too far, and he's pushed the limits of the justice system, a judge orders him to be remanded to his dead-beat dad who lives in a small midwestern town.
There, Josh tries to find his place again and does so by using his DJ skills to help the local dance team and maybe, make connections he's never been able to find.
Okay. Yeah...so like a lot of reviewers have already stated: the movie has everything as well as the kitchen sink-- 1) Coming of age story 2) City boy dumped in a small town 3) War town 4) Dance-a-thosn 5) Teenage romance 6) Grief, pain, trauma, avoidance, etc
And much more!
When you have too many themes and subplots, you can't remotely address any of them very well. Or at all. A few were touched upon and then jerked away.
This movie had some surprising actors in it--Laura Dern, Tom Everett Scott, Josh Duhamel, and Maria Bello--but they were woefully underutilized but did elevate the story and helped out the overall movie.
The main premise is that Josh is closed off due to his mom resenting him being born and not appreciating all that she had to do/give up for him when his own father abandoned them. That was one theme that is the backbone to the film but NEVER gets explored or explained at all. Then we have that whole dance angle that took up 75% of the movie...which, ok, fine, but why did it have to take up so much of the film? The dance/music/DJ element wasn't really well incorporated into the overall plot even though it's the vehicle in which Josh learns to open up, be vulnerable, and talk about the really crappy things that have happened to him. It's just not handled very smoothly or fleshed out enough and came off very disjointed.
There are several scenes of Mary's mother that suffers from depression due to losing her eldest son to war and drowning in the past. That was supposed to be a message about something but it was almost like its own story line that never truly fully connected to the rest of the story, the character Mary, or anything at all.
It's just all these hints at all these random themes shoved into one, short movie. There is little resolution to anything of the open-ended everything. Was there 'some' character growth. Yes, but we don't really get to see how that growth progressed in a coherent way. It just happens, you see it, but there's no explanation. Everything is just kinda vaguely told to you.
What makes this movie more than a few stars is that the acting of the male lead. While his character's limited, the actor did what he could to give some depth but it would have been nice to know more about Josh, not just random scenes of him doing random things.
The touch and go introductions of grief and pain that the female lead, Mary, feels as well as Josh's mandated shrink, Alex, were the most poignant but again, loosely tied to the plot and the indirect effect it has on Josh.
Ultimately, it's a generic, Hallmark type movie that's meant to uplift you but because of all the staggering issues with the plot/script/directing, it's hard to really to come away with 'yeah, that was a tearjerker drama to remember', it's more like, 'what a mess, had potential, but seriously, what a mess!'
I don't regret it. I did like the performances of the most of the cast and when it succeeded, it did well enough. Because there were so many elements at play, could watching it again help me see through the clutter? Me thinks not.