Fat City, New Orleans (2012)
High School Teenagers in 1979 suburb of New Orleans (Fat City) go to nightclubs and discos when the drinking age was just 18 years old and not really enforced. Elvis Costello, The Knack and KC & The Sunshine Band have featured music in this independent film. Its Paul's Senior year and Ashley wants to be his girlfriend, but the cops and a roving eye keeps Paul chasing cheerleaders and young models in his Babylon Modeling class. Tara, Paul's ex-girlfriend causes problems while his pot dealer's girlfriend has other things in mind.
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Simply Perfect
I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
I don't know why I left this movie on until the end. Where do I start. The Main characters just get high and drink and giggle and mack on chicks the whole time- so to start with there is no plot to speak of. There is no story, no special moments, no script. The father seems rather homosexual and the mother too young to be his mother and they both just seem like 2 of his friends- bad casting. Its supposed to be about some place in New Orleans? Ho did the movie show that in any way except for stating several times the 18 year old drinking age. Its really not worth reviewing so this is more like a warning don't waste your eye sight.
I forgot early on that this movie was supposed to be a comedy. It is at no point light hearted enough to be comedic in a fun way, and never cognizant enough of the awfulness of the main character to be a dark comedy. And the main character is truly horrible. He's the self centered jerk, spoiled rich kid, never going anywhere stoner, hopeless alcoholic, and shameless cruel womanizer all in one. Whatever charisma he supposedly has that keeps anyone as his friend or attracts girls to him is completely hidden from the viewer. By the time I was considering turning off the movie I was too invested in seeing something horrible happen to him to turn away.But nothing horrible happens. All of his messes are cleaned up, everyone loves him, he never has to show or gain an ounce of humanity or humility. He's on top of the world at the end of the movie and there is no lesson, no catharsis of any kind. So something horrible did happen, to me!!!I feel sorry for all the characters in the movie for having this person in their life and thinking he's OK. I feel really sorry for Sean Carlin. The kid has a great, friendly, and seemingly comedic screen presence that seems completely wasted here.
I have never been more baffled than I was when I realized I sat through this whole film. I mean how did this get made, let alone get on Netflix?! It is like a kid that dropped out of his first year at community college got his rich parents to fund a movie for him and his friends. I am half a semester through a script writing class and I could write literally a thousand times better than this. Nothing happens in this movie, no plot at all, and everything that does happen could happen now days. The director must be a hypnotist, there is no other explanation for how I sat through this. Please anyone explain to me how this film was made, maybe I am missing something.
There is a valid reason to see this movie, but not the reason most will guess. How do you learn to appreciate really good writing, acting, and cinematography? It helps to occasionally watch a really bad one, and "Fat City, New Orleans" is a good "bad" one to watch. Everything in it is amateurish, painfully so.Most will not realize, "Fat City" is an area of Metairie, adjacent to New Orleans but not part of New Orleans. It was a very popular night spot in the 1970s. I lived in that area from 1973 to 1986, so I am very familiar with it.Stephen Mouton is from New Orleans, by his age (born 1961) he was a teenager in 1979 and his writing and directing this film was perhaps his homage' to that era. But his biography says he is also a Clinical Psychologist, and it appears that he should stick with that profession, he doesn't seem cut out for writing and directing.There are a few minutes total of scenes around New Orleans and the Lakefront, probably "stock" footage they purchased, but the film certainly was not shot in New Orleans, nor do any of the characters sound like they were from the area. There is a focus on the drinking age of 18, which it was. But all in all a very good example of a very poor movie.And the movie closes with a perfect example of this. In the last scene the family ... mom, dad, son, daughter, and girlfriend ... are sitting at a table and the set-up looks like something kids put together for their family performance.Did I mention this film is really amateurish?