Don Verdean (2015)

It's so pleasurable to watch Sam Rockwell play odd, but sweet characters. He really portrays this one in a lovable, humorous and sophisticated manner. You can tell he did the spadework, and I truly enjoyed embarking on this journey with a good-hearted man who falls down a rabbit-hole and excavates a grave too deep to dig himself out. And it's nice that we're taken through a major turning point in his mediocre career -- at one point, something happens and there's no going back, and we're with him, and all unravels before his eyes and he's stuck in something he'd never expected. As often with these indie movies, the cast is structurally adequate and nicely picked. The dialogue is at times witty and at times intense in a dramatic but still lighthearted way. The sudden twist with one of the secondary characters in the movie really made the cut for me. Amy Ryan and Jemaine Clement did a stunning job. Overall, I recommend it to anybody, it's a cute and fun flick.

The Hess team started their career in a very atypical fashion. With the starting surprise success of Napoleon Dynamite and the continued yet not quite as well received Nacho Libre they made their mark. Their next film Gentlemen Broncos failed to wow me as the first two and showed they couldn't keep producing the same effective comedy as they had before. Don Verdean had a similar issue. The first two thirds of the film didn't even make me crack a smile. In the beginning it mainly poked fun at the world of American Christianity most of which was excellently targeted on the faults, hypocrisy, ridiculousness, and phony parts of organized religion. But to me this came across in more of a bitter/angry sort of way rather than comedic. It just didn't work well and didn't have intrigue, nothing but a bait-less hook. The last third of the movie, on the other hand took a turn for the better. The story became interesting, the writing improved, the continual wit and hilarity that I saw in the Hess's previous projects out poured. While none of the acting was bad, Jemaine Clement as Boaz gave an especially entertaining performance. The beginning gave a bad taste in my mouth, but I'm glad I stuck around for the end.

Don Verdean is a movie about a biblical archaeologist whose heart is in the ballpark of right place. But one act throws him in the vicious cycle of lies. It is a movie you can get into and get out quickly and the script does give you couple of hearty laughs along the way. The story is good too. But at the end of it all, the movie is a sheer waste of talent. I personally sought the flick for its cast itself in spite of the poor reviews. Sam Rockwell, Will Forte, Jemaine Claiment and Danny McBride are actors who can single handedly enact finest comedic material. Support from Amy Ryan and Leslie Bibb should have iced up the act. But the story loses steam a few minutes into the film and veers into banality by the second act. The events look forced and the humour gets generated only from dialogs. For example, when Don covers up for Goliath's head everything in that sequence looks concocted. The natural flow is absent thereafter and story seems to be forced towards an ending. Overall, the film deserves a one time watch- for its cast at the least.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. A complete waste of time. Do yourself a favour and avoid this bomb at all costs. The acting was pathetic, the dialogue was witless and the plot, if you could call it that, just ended without an ending. You could pack this loser in dry ice and it would still stink. Just having Danny McBride and Sam Rockwell in the movie should guarantee some laughs, so one can only imagine the Herculean task of eliminating any trace of humour from this movie. Another link in the chain of horrible movies by Jared Hess. Max Verdean was easily the worst effort yet by Hess and that is no mean feat. It was nothing more than 90 minutes of my life that I'll never get back.