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Box Elder (2008)
Director: Todd Sklar
Movie review
From Time Out Chicago
Four college buddies put the “bro” in bromance in this low-key, goofy comedy that plays like a cross between Richard Linklater’s Slacker and TV’s Seinfeld: plot-wise, nothing much happens, but the eccentric people grow on you nevertheless. It benefits from better acting than what’s in many debut indie features and from a sweet-and-sour tang arising from the characters’ rueful awareness of time passing.
On a Midwest college campus (the movie was shot in Columbia, Missouri), stoic theater major Becker (movie-star handsome Renkoski) is alternately boosted and plagued by motormouth pal Alex (Rennie), lovelorn and self-destructive roomie Scott (Sklar), and the cool but ultimately duplicitous Fletcher (Haas). Adding spice is Scott’s girlfriend Laura (the remarkably assured Abdullah), a free spirit who knows when to move on.
The dialogue has a hit-or-miss improvisational feel, but the larky visuals are on target, notably in an iconoclastic Halloween sequence and a deadlock when Alex and Scott push Becker’s patience too far. Their apartment is recognizably a guys’ crash pad, with layers of objects accreting as on archaeological sites, food continuously disappearing (eating is a preoccupation), and moochers sticking around like gum under a table. The buoyant track includes music by ’90s indie-rock innovators Pavement.
Author: Andrea Gronvall
Time Out Chicago Issue 168: May 15–21, 2008
User reviews of this film
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- t.p. persuasio said...
- Posted on Aug 21 2008 02:30 only went to this initially cause I love seeing movies at the Gene Siskel....it turned out to be one of the better things I've seen ever. Thanks for making it and bringing it to the best art house in Chicago.
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- Steve said...
- Posted on Aug 19 2008 02:28 Yes! This flick was so so so funny. It's rare that you find a movie that can make you laugh out loud 10-12 times before the credits roll. It's even rarer to find one that manages to you giggling inbetween those laughs, and also has enough of a story to make you look in the mirror and question more than your outfit. And for less than $70K? Fuget about it. The acting is strong. The filmmaking is stronger. And it doesn't look or feel like a low budget independent film. Not to mention the overall tone of the piece is just so dead on. It almost seems like they let this movie make itself to a certain extent. Like the ship was built, the course was set, but the captain was smart enough to let the wind do the steering and his sailors do the sailing. I don't know how to swim.
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- Francis said...
- Posted on May 17 2008 08:16 A really funny movie, going back to night with friends to watch it again,
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- Davy said...
- Posted on May 16 2008 23:58 Soooooo good. A bunch of real bro dudes.
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- Frank said...
- Posted on May 15 2008 12:12 That's a really solid review. I just saw this last week in Atlanta, and it was awesome.
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Cast & crew
Director: Todd Sklar
Cast: Todd Sklar, Nick Renkoski, Alex Rennie, Chad Haas, Hina Abdullah
Duration: 96 mins
US Release: May 16 2008
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