I’m usually kinder to movies that have flimsy narratives if it can innovate visually. It deserves to be said then that what Evan Glodell and his team have accomplished is truly innovative. By literally building a camera from the ground up, they have created an aesthetic all its own, drawing from music videos, dusty and gritty sci-fi and stylized action montages. Their film “Bellflower” achieves a strikingly apocalyptic look that sadly the screenplay doesn’t earn.
It’s the story of two friends, Woodrow (Glodell) and Aiden (Tyler Dawson), who have a dream to build a flamethrower and demon roadster in the event of the apocalypse. They’re inspired by Mad Max, so its no wonder that “Bellflower” looks like a digital reimagining of “The Road Warrior” set in modern day suburbia.
Woodrow meets the tantalizing and free-willed Milly (Jessie Wiseman), who finds an adorable innocence in his clean-cut look and high-pitched whimper of a voice. But after hearing of his plan to build a flamethrower, she encourages his daredevil side, urging him on a spur of the moment trip across the country in his custom car that dispenses whiskey.
When their dream vacation ends, the pair return home, the flamethrower and death mobile are completed, and Milly cheats on Woodrow. This character drama charts the struggle of these immature characters living out a fantasy to deal with reality and adult emotions, and it does so in the gravest, most stylistic of terms. Continue reading “Bellflower”