SquigglyCrunch
Wildlike follows a teenage girl as she goes to live with her uncle. She soon realizes that circumstances at home with her uncle are unbearable and ultimately she runs away, where she meets an older man about to go hiking. I love the title. It's a simple word that is rarely used in the English language, and it fits the movie pretty well. It's a small thing that proves that the director gave a bigger crap about this movie than some others might've. There are some pretty nice scenic shots in this movie. They aren't anything I haven't seen before, but they were pretty at least. The actors are pretty good. I bought each performance, and the writing accompanying them was pretty good too. It was like each part was written for the actor who played them. They manage to embody these characters really well. The movie spends a decent amount of time developing certain plot points. I specifically appreciated this at the beginning of the movie when the girl and her uncle first start living together. Their relationship is pretty well developed, although short lived, and there're a couple great scenes involving the uncle alone in his room. We as the audience see the turning point in him when he decides to make living with him unbearable, and we see him struggling with this decision and it's something we just don't see every often in movies. It brings humanity to the bad guy right off the bat, and I really appreciated that. The two main characters Kenzie and Bart have really good chemistry, and I really enjoyed seeing them on screen together and interacting and all that. I quite enjoyed the soundtrack as well. There were a handful of good songs throughout, and most of them suited the movie pretty well too. Unfortunately the story does fall flat on it's face from time to time. When the actual hiking starts it's kind of forced. There's not really a good reason for it to actually happen and serves more as filler, character development, and scenic shots. The last two of those things are good, but like I said, it's pretty forced. You as the audience are able to understand for the most part why it happens, but it's still kind of dumb. Overall Wildlike is pretty good. There's some great chemistry between the two main characters, some good actors, the main 'antagonist' is great and very human, the soundtrack is good and the scenery is pretty, but the plot is often forced for the sake of story progression. In the end I'd recommend this movie.
nillobit
Drama, fantasy, comedy - whatever the story genre, good ones have one thing in common. Truth. The story needs to tell the audience of something they know, something they have forgotten or something they can now imagine. Case in point, two films I've recently watched illustrate success and failure clearly. Both involve children being sent away to visit with less than careful parents. I intend to post this review at the site of both films, because the contrast is clear. Wildlike & The Visit both are stories about children being sent away to visit with relatives, mistakenly, by troubled parents. Both are stories about horror, but, where one tells us about evil, the other tells us bad puns. In Wildlike we see a young girl sent away by a defective mother who can't handle taking care of herself or her child. In this movie we walk in this child's shoes and understand the choices she makes. The evil she faces is banal, quiet and could go unnoticed. We see the past and current trauma this child has endured in the acting and writing. The truth is this is everyday evil, the kind that we won't change without understanding it. In the Visit we see a sister and brother sent away by a mother distracted by her own issues. Children know when their parent's are not competent. It affects them and causes doubt and tension. Instead of reflecting that, these siblings are snarky, self involved, smart alecks who are not cautious, vigilant or concerned. The danger these kids face is overt and direct early on, but they seem not to take it serious. Neither can the audience. The truth in a similar film of M. Night Shyamalan's, the Sixth Sense was not the horror the child faced, that only made the film compelling. The truth was about the adults learning to respect the child's view of reality. Their is no such kernel in The Visit.
Leo Sopicki
(Originally published on www.Blogcritics.org) Wildlike, a film by writer/director Frank Hall Green, was shown during the eighteenth Dances With Films (DWF) indie-film festival in Hollywood, May 28 – June 7. Dances With Films promotes itself as relying on "innovation, talent, creativity, and sweat equity" rather than celebrity. All those good qualities are evident in Wildlike.The film has an intriguing story, great characters, and an interesting production history.The Story Wildlike stars newcomer Ella Purnell (Maleficent, Never Let Me Go) as Mackenzie, a 14 year old whose father has died. Her mother, played by Diane Farr (NUMB3RS, Rescue Me), says she needs time to get her life in order and continue her therapy, so she sends Mackenzie from their home in Seattle to spend time with her uncle in Alaska. The uncle, portrayed by Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker, Flight), turns out to be a sexual predator. Unable to contact her mother, Mackenzie decides to flee into what is to her the alien world of Alaska.Desperate and alone, she stalks and latches on to Rene Bartlett, a lone backpacker played by Bruce Greenwood (I,Robot, Star Trek, Mad Men). Their relationship, challenged by the rugged nature of Alaska, bears, police, and ultimately the creepy uncle, moves them through a range of emotions and growth.The Characters Purnell's portrayal of Mackenzie is impressive. She begins as a barely tolerable teenager (aren't they all), but we manage to feel sympathy for her because she does have real problems. She starts full of self-pity and low self-esteem. She is forced to grow as she must maneuver in a world without adult support.Greenwood's character, Rene, has his problems, too. He wants to be alone with the memories of his recently deceased wife, re-visiting the trails they walked upon. The last thing he wants is an obnoxious teenager following him around. His character also grows in response to the challenges.I was particularly impressed with the character of Rene. He is faced with challenges and temptations and behaves in an unexpected manner. He is something rarely seen in current films: a good, moral man.The Production I spoke with writer/director Frank Hall Green after the screening. This film, Green's debut as a director, not only tells the story of a long journey, its road to Dances With Films was a long journey as well.Green, a backpacker himself, had explored Alaska many years ago. He completed the first draft of Wildlike in 2010 and walked the route he envisioned for Mackenzie.During 2010-12, Green lined up the cast. He saw Ella Purnell in Never Let Me Go, and was impressed. Purnell, a native of England, auditioned with a perfect American accent and that sealed the deal.During pre-production, to find locations, Green and producer Joseph Stephens trekked along Mackenzie's path yet again. The production began in Anchorage. On the tenth day of filming the cast and crew formed a caravan and began a 3000 mile trip around Alaska. Making things more challenging, in order to capture the beauty of Alaska, they recorded the movie on 35mm film. Those cameras are heavy, but the crew carried them up and down mountains and glaciers.After the film was completed, the next part of the journey began.Wildlike has been invited to over 90 film festivals and has won 50 festival awards, including 21 Best Film and Audience Awards. According to Green, a distribution deal is near. To find out when Wildlike will go to theaters and VOD, sign up at the film's website.
