Dandelion (2004)

Better Late Then Never

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The Film:is a melancholic love story about a young men living in a field with his parents, the love part starts when Mason Mullich (Vincent Kartheiser),is led down on the ground and a new girl, Danny Voss (Taryn Manning)move out to the field. When they met, instantly, mason starts to have feelings for her and with time, she does to. When everything goes great for Mason and Danny, Mason's father, Luke Mullich (Arliss Howard) hit a man on the road and kill him, when he realize what he has done, comeback to his home and take some things to buried the body, Mason ask him what is going on and if he wanted help, Luke try to tell him that everything is alright, that he just got stuck in the wheat dust because of the rain, but mason knows that he is lying so he decides to go with him and help him.In the place when the crash occur, Mason digs the wheel up whereas his father is in the car and when he falls down because of the mud he see a men covert with mud and try to make sure if he stills alive or dead, the he turns back and see his dad scare an he runs away with the car and mason is left alone there. The following morning, Manson is stopped by it in the police station for being caught in the crime scene next to the body.Manson never confess and for that is sent to jail for a couple of years. He never stop to think about Danny, but when he went out to jail and comeback to town, he found out that Danny was moved on and she was dating whit another guy.To end with the story, Manson comes back with Manson and when Danny's mom,(Michelle Forbes) notice that her daughter is falling in love, she decides that it is time to go to another place. Danny refuse to stay away from Manson and she kills her self in the lake where Manson and a friend were asleep. When Manson wakes up, he see Danny's body floating on the lake, he tries to save her, but she is already dead. To end with the film, Manson kills him self in the same way of Danny.I think that is a marvelous film, there's nothing wrong about this movie, the music, the locations, the actors, the producers, the director, everything gets together to create this excellent love story with such a great twists.Definitely one of the best independent films that i have ever seeing and it worth to spend 93 minutes of your life to see it and analyze it.

A film about teen coming of age crap with a nowhere plot and boring characters. Mainly, the scenes in this film are stale and loaded with stupid dialogue that has no comprehensible purpose to telling any kind of tale that is remotely interesting. The first 15 minutes are watchable and there are the occasional interesting scenes here and there but the whole thing lacks any cohesion or purpose. The movie attempts to be edgy by continually dancing around the visual of this kid putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. But that's about the best it can do in the edgy department. This movie is so dull that thankfully, it is easily forgettable.

In my opinion, everything in this film is superior. The acting was incredible, storyline, plot and screen writing were very realistic. Some might say that the writing had too many curse words in it, but I think that it really showed realism. I actually cried a little during this film, and that's saying something, because I never cry during movies. I always look at them like a critic and manage not to cry during sad dramas. This one was very well casted, makeup was well done...and everything else. The Mullich parents, I think, had the best acting, especially Arliss Howard (Luke), since his character was very deep and complex. I think he pulled it off quite nicely. Taryn Manning and Vincent Kartheiser acted their characters incredibly well, the realism of it all just blew me away. I thought that everything seemed real and was all very well done. I applaud everyone involved and I would recommend this film to a great number of people.

I was at a film festival securing my seat for the movie that followed Dandelion, and so in turn had to watch it. When I read the write-up for it in the program all I could think was, "Jeez, I have to sit through this really bad and boring movie to watch the movie I want to see" *sigh*. Boy was I wrong. The opening scene alone had me hooked. For all of those who have yet to see this, the movie opens with a very teary Vincent Kartheiser placing a .357 in his mouth and pulling the trigger. I was so amazed that I sat completely still waiting to see what would happen next. I'm not typically a drama-movie guy. I like action, explosions, nudity, horror and just plain disgusting things in movies. This movie has very little if any of the afore mentioned things. What this movie does have though is amazing sense of compassion and real life circumstances that draw the viewer (this viewer at least) into this hypnotic trance where you just can't take your eyes off of the screen.It makes me think of other movies that I was blown away by, American History X, The War Zone (Tim Roth's) and Niagara Niagara. Dandelion included, I am amazed by how films can touch a part of you and make you realize certain things about yourself that relate so well to the characters in the film.Let me also say that every character in this film is played fully and believably by the actors portraying them. The scenery from upper Washington and Idaho where it was shot adds so much to the film itself that I find it impossible to imagine this film being as believable and prolific if it were set anywhere else.We had a Q&A session after the film with producer, Molly and actor, Vincent.Two of the coolest people whom I have heard from in quite a while. They were both very candid and very happy about how well the film was received. As they both should be.If you have any time or any ability to see this film either at a festival or in a theater or at home on DVD, please do yourself a favor and watch it. This is coming from a guy who have never seen it except by accident who is now a devoted fan.