Flakes

Michael Lehmann's new film, Flakes, could have been a quirky comedy, centered on a new type of concept "cereal" bar. Instead, it tries too hard to be a romantic comedy with a quirky setting, and unfortunately, doesn't really deliver anything romantic or comedic. I mean, the setting really is great. And the overlying plot--young entrepreneur threatens to Starbuck over a local establishment with a local following--might have worked, if the film had been completely different.

But instead of focusing on the fact that these guys live, eat and breathe cereal, Lehmann decides to cliché it all up by introducing the same old, badly written girl-wants-slackerboy-to-quit working-his-dead-end-job-and-focus-on-his-aspiring-music-career theme. And because of this, we never really get to learn that much about cereal, or what great toys come out of cereal boxes, or really anything cool at all. We do get some slack-off acting and a shameful appearance by Christopher Lloyd. All-in-all, it's a waste of time and plays more like a badly written sitcom than an actual feature film.

Just saw this at the SXSW film festival and found it pretty damn fun. The dialog is kludgey in spots, and I'm not sure they sold the romantic relationship between the two leads well enough, but there are some funny, clever moments with the main story about the competing cereal bars, and the concept itself I thought was fun. Christopher Lloyd has a few nice moments here and there. Deschanel is a blast as always. A curious thing to note, but I liked the set design/art direction quite a bit. Gave the competing venues a real personality of their own. There's still no word on distribution, but I'm hopeful that a good reception at SXSW will give it some momentum in that direction.

According to boxofficemojo.com, Michael Lehmann's "Flakes" raked in all of $778 in revenue when it was released in late 2007. And although one hates to kick a well-intentioned, low budget film when it's down, the truth is that "Flakes" is a cute idea that doesn't really amount to all that much in the long run. In fact, the film is so benign and innocuous that it seems to be evaporating even as you're watching it.

Neal Downs (Aaron Stanford) is a struggling musician who works as manager of a little New Orleans eatery called Flakes (owned by Christopher Lloyd) that serves nothing but cold cereal to its loyal clientele. When a rival franchise opens up across the street, Neal's girlfriend, the self-named Pussy Katz (Zooey Deschanel), applies for a job at the new establishment as a means of getting back at Neal for refusing to hire her at his own place.

The pro-capitalist vs. anti-capitalist theme that runs through the storyline is halfhearted and underdeveloped at best. Moreover, while the cast is engaging and appealing (especially Deschanel), the undernourished Chris Poche/Karey Kirkpatrick screenplay doesn't give the actors a whole lot of solid material to work with. And even the relatively fresh and novel New Orleans setting isn't exploited as much as it could be for its old-world atmosphere and charm.

Watching this, i was not expecting much. I have to say i was pleasantly surprised. During the start of the film i was left in awe at how cool the actual set was, the cereal bar is a work of mise en scene genius. But even with an exciting set a film can still be rubbish.

Flakes is not as quirky as it looks. It's dialogue is impressive and the performances are understated and all work perfectly with the story, see Skinny Larry and Winston. There are moments that made me laugh, granted it was more of a chuckle than a hysterical laugh. The thing that strikes me the most about this movie is how well the writers formulated their characters. All very well judged with good casting in them, the only role i was left wondering about was that of Strawberry as she was pretty pointless. Christopher Lloyd is awesome in this, i read on another comment that Christopher Lloyd does his usual but if you grew up watching him as Doc, this really isn't his usual.

Good characters, good premise, original storytelling and the ever lovely Zooey Deschanel. This is worth a watch, it is not a groundbreaking concept, it will not blow your brains out, it will not keep you on the edge of your seat, however it will charm you and leave you thinking about it. Well it did for me at least.

Top 3 Reasons Not to See Flakes

1: Zooey Deschanel. She plays a terribly dressed, self-absorbed ditzy hipster named Miss Pussy Katz who runs around saying things like "you can't nurture your soul and accumulate at the same time" and ruins everyone's lives with her self-righteous drivel. For the first time, Zooey Deschanel loses that endearing balance between obnoxious and endearing and goes full on obnoxious. Don't watch it unless you're willing to run the risk of hating Zooey Deschanel forever.

2: The plot. A guy (Aaron Stanford) works at a cereal bar (it's just what it sounds like). Another guy opens a less dirty version of the cereal store across the street. They call each other names for 45 minutes, then hand out a bunch of flyers and make DIY t-shirts. Then the movie is over. Seriously. That was the whole movie. It grossed a whopping $311 dollars in its opening week.

3: Hipsters. There is nothing more obnoxious than listening to a bunch of post-teens waxing self righteous the "best" years of Cap'n Crunch and the bouquet and mouth feel of Fruity Pebbles like baby wine snobs. Except when they eventually switch topics to rip on "suits" and "consumerism". The dialogue does its best to remind us why we hate hipsters in the first place: because they're really just hateful little future conservatives dabbling in corporate sponsored "counter culture"...it's like Urban Outfitters started making people.