Levelland (2003)
Remember the Summer of '42? This
is supposed to be the Summer of 2002!
It's pretty obvious from the beginning
of "Levelland" that Texas writer/director Clark Lee
Walker is sucking at the tit of Linklater. His dialogue
is straight out of "Slacker" where disenfranchised
teenagers talk disparagingly about their hometown
and their lives. Trouble is, Walker doesn't have nearly
the ear for teenage realism that Linklater has, nor
does he have the ability to cast actors well, so his
film sounds more like some stilted, sophomoric attempt
at being Linklater than it does the genuine article.
And before I'm accused of "easy
criticism," let me offer this truth: I saw "Levelland"
before I knew who Walker was. And I conceived of these
criticisms in my own mind, well before I knew that
he even worked with Linklater. This was before I realized
he was in "Slacker" and co-wrote "The Newton Boys"
and worked on "SubUrbia" and "Before Sunrise."
There are other Linklateresque things
about the film as well. After opening with dialogue
that is obviously inspired by "Slacker" (and continuing
it throughout the film), Walker turns the film into
a remake of "Dazed and Confused." The focus here is
a group of teenagers (albeit getting the whole summer
rather than just the last day of school) discussing
their lives and the meaninglessness of it all. There's
even the resident "stoner" type goof who says things
like "Dude" and "Party" and stuff. (In an even more
horrifying moment, he's shown to be a "Mexican" who
has a ratty house and a "crazy" mother. But that's
okay because, as we've learned from "Raising Victor
Vargas" and "Real Women Have Curves," all Mexicans
have crazy mothers, right?)
""Levelland" starts off with problems.
Not only is the acting and the dialogue stilted, but
the film begins as if it is going to be some sort
of skateboarding movie. And, lets face it, the skateboarding
in the movie is downright dull and event-less. These
kids couldn't skateboard their way out of a wet pool,
let alone a dry one. But, this criticism begins to
lack merit as the film evolves. After 30 minutes or
so, it becomes obvious that Walker here is trying
to present a story of disaffected youth during a Texas
summer. His characters aren't supposed to be master
skateboarders. They're supposed to be na‹ve and unconvincing
as "good" skateboarders. Still, Walker spends far
too much time lovingly caressing their skating moves
with his camera. It gets boring. And at 2 hours, "Levelland"
needs all the help it can get to not be boring.
Another problem with the film is
the use of music. For a while, I though maybe Walker
was presenting a story supposedly set in the early
80's because the film is peppered (assaulted, really)
with late 70's punk music. Now, I love this music,
but I find it hard to believe that kids today in East
Texas are spending their summers jamming to "New Waves
Greatest Hits" compilation CD's. I had to do some
head scratching and try to remember things in the
film that proved to me that this was supposed to be
modern day. Eventually I remembered words like "DVD
player" being used. And then a new Volkswagen Beetle
appeared as a character's car in the film, so I knew
this was supposed to be present day. Ipso facto, the
music is really unrealistically used in this film.
That isn't to say I didn't like it or that I thought
it wasn't used effectively during music montages.
A scene that uses Elvis Costello's "Peace, Love and
Understanding," is indeed quite nice. It just doesn't
seem realistic when the characters are sitting listening
to their portable CD players and they've got some
old 70's punk song.
This film goes on way too long and
has a lot of problems but I couldn't help liking it
for one reason and that reason is Marie Black. Recognizable
to Austin film aficionados immediately as the female
lead in Jeff Stohland's "What I Like About you," Black
is perhaps the best actress working in Austin films
today. Her character here is bold, well drawn, realistic
and emotionally raw. Her interaction with young actor
Matt Barr, who gradually gets better as the film gores
on, are so open and real and blatantly emotional that
the film almost becomes embarrassing. In fact, the
audience of tittering idiots I saw the film with at
SXSW in 2003 couldn't stop giggling at Black's character
every time she appeared on screen because her motivations
and her feelings were so real and obvious. This is
not to say her performance is lacking, rather the
audience that I saw the film with was lacking. What
a bunch of sophomoric jerks.
Of course, Walker's script and his
editing job didn't help Black much. When teenage Barr's
mother leaves on a business trip and Black's car appears
in his driveway immediately afterward, it rings horribly
contrived. When she sneaks in his house, disrobes
and seduces him, seemingly without knowing who's in
the house, she appears to be an idiot. It is only
Black's amazing performance that bolts through Walker's
bullshit and poor work to suspend this film above
the "Levelland" of mediocrity that it often sinks
to. She even helps Barr to elevate his talents almost
to her level. Their scenes together are fierce and
unafraid and the duo deserves many accolades for the
chances they were willing to take with the material.
"Levelland" is a pretty bad film
and Walker shows that he has much work to do to be
taken seriously as a filmmaker. Still, as the film
went on, and the actors got better and the plot got
more interesting, I became more involved. And as the
focus turned onto Barr's Zach character and his relationship
with the older Black, the film eventually started
to win me over. Too bad the actors were in a film
by a filmmaker who did seemingly everything in his
power to negate their work.
Notes:
Also with Jessica Schwartz and newcomers
Simon Bingham, Logan Camp (or is it Logan Taylor?),
Jason Juranek, and Erik McKay.
Richard Linklater is thanked in
the film as is The Dobie Theater and its current manager
Keith Garcia.
Viewed in March 2003 at the SXSW
Film Festival.
