Korey Coleman's "2am" is a derivative, sloppy, painfully bad excursion in to why things like good acting, good direction, good dialogue and interesting stories are important to making a film work. While the story structure here is quite adept and works very well, there is only one story arc of the three presented that really holds our attention and seems to work halfway decently.

The "2am" of the title is a time in which Coleman's plot returns to 3 times. The film begins with a group of friends talking at a bar in one of the most painfully excruciatingly bad and poorly acted scene to grace a no-budget independent film in quite some time. We meet Coleman and his friends Jafo and Carroll among the group. Coleman plays Les. Well, I'm using the term "plays" pretty loosely here. Coleman is in the film and says lines of dialogue as if he were reading them from a script hidden under the table and everyone else in the film calls him Les instead of Korey. That's what I mean by "plays." I don't know the name of the person (note, I did not say "actor") who plays Jafo but he is cute in that sort of "I might be a bastard son of Robert Plant" way. His storyline is silly, about wanting to have a 3-way with two girls, and enters the realm of the irritating when a dykey rollergirl tattooed character named Cricket enters the scene. It's enough to make you walk out of the movie. The storyline that later evolves around Coleman is equally boring and pointless.

The mid-film sequence involving Carroll (Jeremy Denzlinger) and Joey (Sonya Tsuchigane) is quite nice and Denzlinger's coy charm mixed with Tsuchigane's ability to emote compassion is quite compelling. We like these characters and there are some reveals regarding them that are poignant in interesting. But Coleman's script abandons reality at the end of their moment, when Joey cannot seem to understand that Carroll has to go to help his friends. Coleman hasn't written a honest and truthful scene and Denzlinger and Tsuchigane do not seem able to create characters that can make it seem real either. Albeit, Meryl Streep and Laurence Olivier might had just as much problem trying to do so.

Coleman, an animator, uses several CGI effects in the film that work well. There are several neon signs on local Austin businesses (where the film was made) in establishing shot that are changed without being obvious to anyone who isn't from the cool little Texas town I live in. And since the film rewinds in time a few times, Coleman also uses a cool effect of a digital clock running quickly backwards that works quite well within the construct of the film's plot.

"2am" does seem to get better as it goes along. The final act of the film, where all of the characters end up back at Jafo's apartment, plays much better than the creaky opening scenes and we begin to like these characters more and care about them a little more deeply when we truly see how much they mean to one and other. The silly Jafo becomes a more rounded character and the actor that plays him becomes far more attractive in the process. But in the end the film is undoubtedly to amateurish to really be taken seriously. And it just doesn't work when all is said and done. It's so clanky and unrealistic and dull in points that no matter what time you start watching it, it will seem likes it's long after 2am before the final credits roll.

Notes:

Also with Deborah Abbott (who sadly is given nothing to do here).

Viewed at SXSW in March of 2006. Comments on the screening and the Q&A of the filmmakers, cast and crew are on the Day 4 page of Filethirteen's SXSW coverage.

Report Card

Script: B-

Acting: D-

Cinematography\Lighting: C-

Special Effects\Make Up: C

Music: C-

Final Grade: D-