Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Micransix Crappy film

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

bjarias ..most odd-ball films try as they might, they just never seem most times to pull it off.. this one gets it right on most every level, and it's not only the great cast giving all-out solid performances.. it's a script that mostly through the entire movie teeters on the edge, and feels like it always might be going to go over, but never does.. a big fan of every actor in this production, and as an ensemble cast here they have created a film that will be worth viewing again and again for years to come.. all across the spectrum, all aspects of this great little film are top notch.. it's a 'keeper' for the video library..

bob_bear The eponymous Hallam is quickly established as a creepy, totally self-obsessed, loser. One who treats everyone with contempt. One who speaks to his father and step-mother in a way that deserves a good slap that never comes. Instead he is indulged for god knows why and consequently I didn't care about him, his dysfunctional family or his boo-hoo poor me plight.There is nothing wrong with the art direction or the acting. Both are of a higher caliber than one expects from a cheapo Brit movie. No, it's the characters and plot that stink.A character based drama should have characters you are interested in even if you don't like like them. I wasn't intrigued, I was offended. How long before I switched off? Probably 15 minutes -- the gruesome assignation up in the tree house between step-mother and son was the last straw. Life is too short to suffer tripe like this.

FlashCallahan Seventeen year-old Hallam Foe is a weird teenager that misses his mother, who committed suicide, drowning in a lake nearby their house in Edinburgh after an overdose of sleeping pills. Hallam spends his spare time peeping at the locals and blames his stepmother Verity Foe, accusing her of killing his mother. After a discussion with his father Julius Foe, Hallam sneaks out from his house and travels to Edinburgh, where he sees Kate Breck and becomes obsessed with her because of her resemblance to his mother. Kate hires Hallam to work in the kitchen of the hotel where she works and they have a strange romance, while Hallam reaches his maturity the hardest way....Now this could be classed as a kind of Psycho for snobs. Yes, it's very impressive to look at, and the performances are great, but it concentrates too much on the mother fixation to convince us that this is some kind of psychedelic coming of age movie, or the Anti-Ferris Beuller if you would.It's not very nice to watch in some scenes, and it has a downbeat feel all the way through, But Bell and Miles put some much needed human elements into it, thanks to their decidedly weird relationship.The soundtrack is absolutely amazing, and just about saves the film, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense unfortunately, it's just a film about a boy who cannot forget about his mother, tries to get away from it, finds a woman who looks like his mother, watches her have sex, and in the last minute of the film decides not to dwell and find himself instead.A bit bland to be honest.

StarsDown Mister Foe is another "indie coming of age dramedy" with a hip indie soundtrack about a charismatic teen with psychological problems. Hallam is a film about a boy who misses his dead mother and ends up striking up a relationship with a women who looks like her. Normally films handle the Oedipus complex a little tactfully but Mister Foe goes right for it and pulls no punches. Even after they set it up they go to the well once too often. Each character has a broadly drawn idea of their personality but we never get a sense of who they are. The fact that both of them have such emotional baggage is what is supposed to make it interesting, but they have that baggage because the film says they do. The baggage exists to create the characters and not that characters exist because of the baggage. At the end the character development seems to serve the plot more the the characters themselves. The best parts of this film is the voyeurism angle and even that seems to get lost in the shuffle and even downplayed to other aspects like a weak and unnecessary family drama in addition to a murder mystery that it seems even David Mackenzie tries to downplay and holds off as long as he can. Jamie Bell does give a great performance as Hallam playing a somber yet energetic teenager even if he doesn't have much to work with. David Mackenzie also does a great job of framing the film with some beautiful backdrops and backgrounds. It seems his weakest aspect is filming characters as his character moments are flat and uninteresting with the backgrounds being what gives it flare. Mister Foe is a character study of caricatures. It is fun and odd but at the same time shallow.