Iowa (2005)

One of my all time favorites.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I'd really like to be able to tell you that this movie is worth seeing, that this little indy flick about small town Iowa life and the perils of methamphetamine is gripping and smart and honest. But this film isn't gripping. It isn't smart. It isn't honest. It is steaming pile of confused and confusing storytelling mixed together with a relentless kaleidoscope of visual stylizing. From inexplicable accents and morphing beards to nonsensical schemes and magical lacerations to ridiculously excessive editing and a character that looks and acts like he just stepped out of The Time Tunnel, Iowa is just one stupid and irritating thing after another.While it's ostensibly about a pair of young lovers named Esper Harte and Donna Huffman (Matt Farnsworth and Diane Foster) descending into a meth-fueled haze of violence and hallucinations, there are too many elements of this tale that don't make sense on the most rudimentary level for it to be about anything except how much it sucks. I mean, it's clear that writer/director Matt Farnsworth wants to say something about the meth problem in Iowa. It's also clear that he believes he can say it by ineptly aping the style of Requiem for a Dream. What's absolutely unmistakable, however, is that Farnsworth is incapable of telling any story more complicated than "see Spot run".Let me just give you one example of the head-scratchingly incompetent writing at work here. Early on in the movie, Esper gets thrown in jail on a drug charge by corrupt corrections officer Larry (Michael T. Weiss) as part of a plan to kill him and get the money left to Esper by his dead father. All we see of Esper in jail is him slumped up against the wall in a prison cell with someone leering at him. Larry then asks Donna to come down to his office, whereupon he spends several hours raping her over and over. He lets Donna go. She gets some money and bails out her boyfriend…and that somehow foils Larry's attempt to kill Esper. There's never a hint of how or when Esper was supposed to get murdered. There's not a glimmer of an explanation for why Larry decided to spend an evening raping Donna or how he thought he could get away with it. Nothing in the entire sequence of events makes a lick of sense.And it's not just big stuff like that which is screwed up in this movie. It's also little things like Esper's beard constantly changing shape and length. It randomly ranges from relatively trimmed to nearly Amish-like in dimension. Esper gets a cut on his forehead. Then the cut disappears. Then it reappears. And that's not because the story jumps around in some non-linear fashion. They simply forgot the cut makeup one day while they were shooting a scene. And then there are these weirdly southern accents that creep into the dialog at times. Unlike people from Minnesota or Wisconsin, Iowans are renowned for having a dialect without inflection. But this film seems to believe that all white trash are descended from the same tribe somewhere in Kentucky.By far the strangest aspect of Iowa is the character of Larry. It's not that he's cartoonishly evil. It's that while the film is clearly set in the early to mid 2000s, Larry looks like he wakes up every morning in 1973. His clothes, his manner and his facial hair are all from a completely different era than every other person in the story. Michael T. Weiss appears to be having some fun playing this walking, talking anachronism, but that doesn't change how awesomely misplaced the character is in this movie.As someone born and bred in the Hawkeye State, it pains me to say that Iowa is one of those films where all you can do is sit and marvel at how awful it is.

I saw this movie on a trip to Iowa, and not knowing much about Matt Farnsworth, the director (or the subject of meth, for that matter), I had no preconceived expectations, but walked away impressed and educated by a first-time filmmaker's jarring exploration into addiction.Though Farnsworth doesn't quite explore the psychology of drug addiction as much as he could, the frenetic, visual representation illustrates the world of meth from a user's perspective, providing a sharp contract to the small town setting of the film. Farnsworth is capable in the lead role, but its Michael T. Weiss's turn as a sadistic, power-tripping sheriff that steals the show.A couple of complaints: Fransworth occasionally goes for shock value, mistaking it for a message of rude awakening. And the hand-held, store-bought-video-camera interludes of the Iowa landscape seem forced and shlocky. The landscape means very little to the film (presumably less than Farnsworth thinks it does, since the movie is named for the state it resides in), as this story could be easily translated to any city (big or small) in the states.I've read Farnsworth has been leading an anti-meth crusade, and while that's honorable, I hope (for selfish reason) that he has not abandoned directing for this higher calling. I can't wait to see what he does with his second go-round.

Although I wouldn't say this is the best movie I've seen, I thought that it did drive home the addicting and devastating effects of meth production, sale and use. The acting, for the most part, was captivating. I've lived in Iowa for almost a year now, and some folks have been worried about the perspective this gives of the state. I think that the movie really could have been placed in any rural community and still drive home the point. Quite honestly, I think that without the sex scenes, if this movie was shown to junior high school and high school students, it would quell any curiosity to try meth (particularly, I think, the tweaking scene and its aftermath). I still think "Requiem for a Dream" is a better movie that talks about the effects of dreams and the use of drugs to attain those dreams, but I have recommended this movie to many friends as a must-see movie.

I just saw this film at the Tribeca film festival and it had some great moments. It is reminiscent of Pulp Fiction, Blow, and Natural Born Killers, except it only takes place in a small town. Farnsworth did a brilliant job, especially considering it is his directorial debut and how young he is. There are some very gory scenes and it is definitely suspenseful. The camera work is very good. The beginning is a little slow, but most of the film is powerful. I have no complaints except that maybe there was a lot of stuff that was done for shock value. I am sure this film will get him some attention and more work. I recommend this to people who like films with drug and violent themes. There are some messages in it, but this is not a highly intellectual film. I don't normally write reviews, so I hope this is helpful.-J