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Released By: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released On: 005/17/2011
Director: Michael Goldbach
Cast: Kat Dennings, Josh Lucas, Reece Thompson, Andie MacDowell
The Film:
Every time I watch a big-budget Hollywood film that has no soul, or another butchered remake, I'm reminded of the fact that there's still reason to have faith in cinema through independent film making. But then, a film like Daydream Nation comes along, written and directed by Michael Goldbach, and I wonder if there really is any hope at all for my favourite medium.
Daydream Nation features Kat Dennings as Caroline, a big-city girl who relocates to a small town and immediately becomes the ire of her female classmates when she starts banging her good-looking teacher (Josh Lucas) and resident stoner Thurston, while carrying on as your typical angst and apathy-ridden teenager should. She goes to parties, drinks, does drugs, and spits out the required rhetoric of her stereotypical peer group to a soundtrack of mostly mediocre indie rock that most of us grew up with and were affected deeply by…20 years ago. Couple this seemingly lame attempt to be cutting edge with the emotional shallowness of pretty much all of the teenaged characters involved, oversaturate in bullshit slow motion sequences (of which there are far too many), and you have a perfectly unnecessary waste of a film that packs no punch, whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, it's tough to be the new kid.
Any negative opinion of Daydream Nation can be placed squarely at Goldbach's feet; the acting is just fine, with Dennings and Reece Thompson clearly doing the best with what they've been given; but the story sucks, and comes off like the film that most of us talked about making back when we were too busy getting high and listening to Sonic Youth to actually put a movie together. To his credit, Goldbach has gone that step farther, but for no apparent reason. The serial killer angle is interesting, but doesn't go anywhere, and Goldbach has said that it's a metaphor…which pretty much nullifies any credit he should get for it…and the idea of the teenaged stripper who suffers the torment of having hot coins snapped at her is only dealt with for a moment or two, seemingly only placed in the film as an excuse to use a Sonic Youth song in a strip club sequence. Oddly enough, Goldbach's script is strongest in the relationships between the adults, no doubt emphasized by the excellent performances of Andie MacDowell, Josh Lucas, and Ted Whittall; a solid indication that Goldbach should give up the idea of trying to be the adult that the kids think is groovy because he “gets†them, and get on with trying to do something productive and meaningful.
If you like faux-art posturing, over-used camera tricks and a steadfast dependence on a soundtrack, Daydream Nation may be right up your alley. But if you realize that Kat Dennings jumping on her bed to loud music is never going to top Thora Birch's Jaan Pehechaan Ho routine in Ghost World, you might be better off…..sticking with Ghost World.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Anchor Bay presents Daydream Nation on blu-ray with a good-looking 1.78:1 transfer and a decent Dolby True HD 5.1 soundtrack. The colours and black levels are strong with nary an artifact, and the dialogue and mediocre soundtrack come through clearly with no issues.
A Behind the scenes featurette that runs approximately six and a half minutes is included, and contains interview clips with the Director and Cast talking briefly about making the film.
Four trailers round out the supplements on this disc.
The Final Word:
The tagline on the front cover, comparing the film to a David Lynch version of Juno and a “funnier, sunnier†version of Donnie Darko should remind you of the crappy films that came out in the early 90's with similar taglines. There is nothing Lynchian or Donnie Darkoish about Daydream Nation. It is, quite simply, a complete waste of time.
