Cold Weather (2010)

Fantastic!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

I've read both positive and negative reviews for this movie. The one thing both negative and positive reviewers can agree upon is the ending is terrible. It just stops. That's it. There are theories on why the director decided to abruptly stop the movie: someone spilled coffee on the script and they only used the parts without coffee stains in the movie; the camera ran out of batteries; the director was asked for a permit to shoot a movie in Portland, and, when he couldn't produce one, he could no longer shoot in Portland and decided to make the movie with what he had already shot; etc.Before the ending, I disliked: 1. Terrible dialogue that was plodding and tedious. I also disliked the acting. When the characters are merely sitting around mumbling to themselves, they seem believable. But when they have to show anger, fear, or tension, it's not believable.2. Overly-long shots of nothing important: shots of people sleeping for 2 mins; 2 min shots of people eating in silence while the director stands 50 yards away; 5 min shots of people eating Swedish fish and mumbling; etc.3. The fact that the first 40 minutes were useless in terms of plot and character development. And the abrupt disappearance of Carlos and Rachel in the third act.When I watch a movie, I want to walk away seeing something unique: story, cinematography, directing, acting, music, special effects, etc. This is what I got from Cold Weather: a cautionary tale on how not to make a movie.

This is an interesting indie film by auteur Aaron Katz. I had not seen any of his previous work but had heard the film was well received at SXSW in 2010. Similarly, I had seen a review that compared it to the film Brick (2005) that I had enjoyed immensely. Plot wise the film introduces us to a forensic science college dropout Doug who idolizes Sherlock Holmes and his Slacker sister Gail as they move into an apartment together in Portland Oregon. Doug lays about and searches for some direction in life, eventually finding a menial night job at an ice factory. We are then introduced to one of Doug's co-workers Carlos and Doug's ex-girlfriend Rachel who is in town for business. The four start hanging out together, playing cards and board games, drinking coffee, going to clubs and enjoying each other's company. Rachel's sudden mysterious disappearance from her hotel room spurs the other friends to action and ignites Doug's inner Sherlock Holmes.This film is considered by many critics to be part of the mumblecore movement. As such it has lots of long shots, a slowly evolving plot and realistic dialogue between lots of slackers. In some respects this film is more about the brother sister relationship between Doug and Gail than it is about the mystery of Rachel's disappearance. It has an arty independent feel to it and it was obviously shot on a low budget. Cold Weather is certainly not going to be for everyone's taste, especially the abrupt ending. However, I really liked its quirkiness and indie feel probably because I've got thing for overly educated layabouts.Since this is available on Netflix instant streaming I would suggest you give it a viewing. That is if you enjoy small independent films with a grungy vibe. I found it inspiring that the writer/director was able to get this made, I plan on checking out some of his previous films. O and I think I would like to take a trip up to check out Portland Oregon it looks amazing.

If you enjoy watching a series of long, protracted establishing shots with very little story then this is the film for you. For the first forty minutes it's as if the director waltzed away from the camera and forgot to yell cut, as the same screen image continues into a oblivion. These drawn out shots happen frequently during the film and it is about as entertaining as staring at a wall for five minutes.Eventually, a mystery presents itself when the main character's ex-girlfriend disappears. There is one specific series of clues he follows involving a set of numbers. At first glance it appears to be a clever twist but, on reflection it is such an obscure reference and does not relate to any of the personality traits of the characters.The rest of the amateur detective work is rather pedestrian, there are really no surprises. The acting here isn't bad, it's just the script which doesn't contain any surprises or twists. The mystery portion ends fairly abruptly and by that time if you're not fast asleep you will be wondering why you ended up watching this film. There are some nice establishing shots, of waterfalls Oregon scenery but, otherwise an utter bore. How the critics gave this good reviews I will never know. Perhaps they all fell asleep as well and dreamed they saw a good film.

This film was described by Spin Magazine (in a 3-and-a-half star review) as a mystery that takes its time. I'm all for that. But did it have to take SO MUCH time to resolve a mystery that was UNINVOLVING and BORING? Just another bunch of aimless 30-somethings in the damp upper Northwest who apparently never shave or wash their hair, mumbling their way through life and never doing anything even remotely interesting. Believe me, I've sat through plenty of quirky indie films with little complaint, but I was literally shouting at my TV screen when this DVD ended. An hour and forty minutes of my life utterly wasted. I will avoid this talentless filmmaker like the plague for the rest of my days. SKIP THIS MOVIE!!!!!