| OCEAN PARK Rating:  Director: David Warfield Writer: David Warfield Producers: Eric Liekefet, David Warfield Director of Photography: Reinhart "Rayteam" Peschke Cast: Kenneth Hughes, Alexandra Wilson, Jonathan Aube, Marcus Dean Fuller Visit the IMDB Page for full cast and crew listing |
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Review by: Ryan
Kugler
7/17/02
If Memento procreated with Mulholland Drive and their offspring was turned into a film directed by Greg Araki, D.P.'d by the person that shot Julian Donkey Boy and was cast by a madman (supporting cast members include Michael Des Barres and Tim Thomerson), it would resemble Ocean Park. This shockingly bad shot on digital feature has a murky look, a muddled plot and it takes itself way too seriously. It's all so overwrought and ridiculous (though played totally straight) that it starts off somewhat amusing, but ends up being one hell-of-a-chore to sit through.
The film was shot on and around the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles and tells a cautionary tale about an actress who comes to the motion picture capitol of the world with dreams of becoming a star (shades of Mulholland Drive).
Jo (Alexandra Wilson) is a would-be actress who hooks up with Will (Kenneth Hughes), an actor whose star is fading. He gives her acting lessons and she gives him sex. Things hit a snag for him when he brings her to a party. She meets and immediately falls for Will's brother-in-law Rick (Jonathan Aube), a success with only two roles under his belt. Jo hooks up with the married bad boy and gets involved with drugs. One evening, Rick videotapes her as she does coke and as he forcefully has sex with her. Soon after this incident, Will finds her dead body and the search for the killer and the videotape is on. Unfortunately for the two actors, the evidence shows that more than likely, one of them was responsible for her death. Things get even more complicated when Jo's twin sister Davia (also played by Wilson) and crooked cop Kenny (Marcus Dean Fuller, looking a lot like the NSYNC guy that wants to be shot into space, which on reflection sounds like a great idea as the further he gets from this planet, the better) arrive on the scene with shady plans of their own.
Making the mostly incoherent plot even harder to follow is writer/director David Warfield, who uses such conventions as flashbacks and flashforwards (shades of Memento) to make his tale a little less linear for the sake of being cool. It distracts, but not enough to make his tired murder mystery any more interesting or exciting. Maybe if this material was played as the camp that it really is (like Wild Things), it would have been a cheesy, fun soap opera. As is, it's a deadly dull bore.
I feel kind of bad (but not too) ripping a film like this, as I'd much rather launch an attack on a big Hollywood production. I respect David Warfield for having the drive and ambition to make his own feature and to get it accepted into a film festival, but a bad film is a bad film. Even though I didn't like Ocean Park, at least Warfield got to spend about 100 million less on his digital feature than Lucas spent on his (assuming Episode 2 cost exactly 100 million).
On a side note: Remind me never again to sit in the first five rows during a no-budget, digitally shot project. After 101 minutes of dark and blurry footage shot by a monkey-cam, my head was ready to explode.
(Screened at the 2002 Dances With Film
Festival)
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