Reviews

I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer on TV when it came out, so when I came across a little independent film that features 3 of the actresses, I was a bit intrigued.

No, not a supernatural film or anything with action in it.

Honestly, it many ways it reminded me a bit of the type of thing you'd see on Highway to Heaven.

Just a slice of life film, really.

Even though Amber Benson, Charisma Carpenter and Clare Kramer are likely to be relatively unknown to most people, I got to admit I immediately smiled just to see them. I have a feeling that it got made simply because they knew each other..

A simple story, well told and well acted.

A story involving people being mostly kind, loving, and supportive.

It might not be what most people are looking for, but I liked it.

So, I finally got my Blu-Ray of Frank and Ava. I've been looking forward to watching it ever since Emily Elicia Low announced she was working on it. I really, really want to love this movie because she's in it.

When I see her on the screen she always puts out a certain something, but I admit I'm biased. The problem is, well, there are a number of problems actually.

First, the good, I loved the cars, the clothes, and many of the locations. It was great to see Harry Dean Stanton and Katherine Helmond in their last roles as well as veterans like Robert Costanzo and Eric Roberts. Ron Pritchard killed as Sammy Davis Jr. and the people playing the newscasters and rumor mongers were overall excellent. A very nice use of underused talent. Robin Arcuri as a stenographer is an almost criminal under use of talent.

The not so good involved much of the script which just did not seem to give Emily the right words. I'm not sure if there was some bad directing going or or if they just chose to limit the number of shoots, but the scenes with her varied from excellent to ones I really think they should have shot again.

The subplot dealing with abortion managed to get lost along the way and could have easily been cut. The scene in Africa with the "Frank is bigger" should have been cut completely, it was really, really bad and there was no excuse for it.

There were times when there really should have been more people in the scene and their lack was missing. The cinematography/lighting jumped around from movie quality to cheap TV show settings.

Seeing the old school royalty chatting about Frank and Ava was a nice touch.

Overall I was not unhappy I watched it, but for whatever reason what could have been, did not happen. I'll still watch Emily Elicia Low's next film.