Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I knew I was in trouble when the picture comes up and there's Vincent Kartheiser (better known as Connor from the Angel TV show); I knew I was in more trouble when, as he lay against an unending field of amber grain, he puts a revolver into his mouth and blows his head off.Dandelion is a long, boring, depressing film about boring, depressed kids stuck in the middle of the heartland somewhere (though blessed with the ability to walk for miles and miles in seemingly no time at all). Kartheiser plays the mopey lead Mason, whose father (Arliss Howard) is perpetually angry and whose mother (Mare Winningham) drinks to cope. The first forty-five minutes or so concerns itself with Mason covering for an accidental hit-and-run his dad commits (and no reason is ever given for the sullen boy's unspoken act of heroism. There's no displayed love between father and son. He just does it, for no reason); and the second half of the film covers Mason's relationship with Danny (Taryn Manning), a girl almost as depressed as he because her mom (a bloated, blonde Michelle Forbes) moves around so much she has no roots and no sense of self. Naturally these two bring some spark of happiness to one another; his parents almost seem glad, but her mother decides to move again, sparking, gasp, a conflict.I was surprised to see that this film ran only 93 minutes. It felt well over two hours, like one of those butt-numbing Peter Jackson epics. The pacing is so slow and the characters so lethargic and apathetic that it's hard to feel anything during the course of the film. There's some gorgeous Midwestern scenery, but I think the filmmakers were going for bleak isolation rather than bountiful plenty.Not that most of you have even heard of this film (no accident there), but now that you have, avoid it. You must by default have some better way to kill 90 minutes than to watch this film. Should you happen upon it at a rental place, or even online, do yourself a favor I failed to and pass on this clunker.

I picked this up at the local video store, having been impressed with its credentials and the intriguing writeup about the storyline. I guess I'm glad I did, even if the film really fails at getting beyond some rather simplistic coming-of-age poignancy. The kind of films I most enjoy are slower mood pieces ... but they have to add up to something."Dandelion" fails because the script really isn't meaty enough to warrant any in-depth resonance to these characters. The cast does remarkably well with precious little, particularly Vincent Kartheiser in the lead role and Arliss Howard as his father. Their relationship is one that's actually fascinating but it doesn't get too far into redemptive territory. Part of what I want to know is how these characters got here. How'd the father become such a remote curmudgeon? What's Mason's past history with friends, his mother? His way of being protective over her is touching, but his role as her son is given scant attention. Everyone seems so passive, as if they're letting things roll over them. And what really motivates Mason to take the fall for his father? Why does he feel that in some sense he deserved it? This we'll never know because the writing isn't there. When the dad tells Mason he loves him in the graveyard, it's supposed to be a powerful moment, but comes off as pretty sophomoric. Because, really, if that's all he realizes, it's not much.Because of the poor writing, the plot turns feel forced, contriving to hammer down twists and turns. But none of that feels natural -- just overloaded (particularly Danny's demise ... what a cheap shot by the writers).Best scene: Mason, Danny and the dying bird. That scene, at the very least, has some surprise and kick to it. But it doesn't really connect in any coherent way with their love and the rest of the film.The pace and cinematography are just fine. There's great use of the landscape and pretty camera work, but I'm not sure it really adds much to have endless fields of waving grain.Ah, such beautiful emptiness. Too bad it's not as interesting as it could've been.

"Dandelion" is a hauntingly beautiful contemporary spin on "Splendor in the Grass," with pervasive forebodings of how the endless horizons of the American Western prairie can lead to claustrophobic traps.Debut director/co-writer Mark Milgard masterfully makes the long hot summer of the lovely Idaho and Washington landscapes redolent with both the magic of young love and the dread of violence in a very "Days of Heaven" fashion. The perceptive camera fills in the silent gaps of the inarticulate characters, between parents and their teens, between parents and between teens. The sins of the parents are literally visited on the children. The action is moved along not by theatrically explosive explication but by the existential choice that each character makes, even as one gently points out that his passivity at a key point was a choice. Using cinema as a storytelling technique, the director unveils these choices visually.Key to the success of this approach is Vincent Kartheiser. We certainly had no trouble thinking he was from another dimension in TV's "Angel," and here his emotive face and saucer eyes are Garbo-like to the camera. His "Mason" almost non-verbally goes from sullen son huddling under his hair to opaque Billy Budd-like martyr to an achingly enraptured Romeo. His sudden bright smile lights up the screen and forecasts the potential for hope and love as much as his tear-filled eyes drown our hearts. Every feeling felt or shut down is reflected in that face and eyes. Kudos to Kartheiser for not choosing to be another of the WB TV Boyz -- was he in college in between?-- and instead taking an offbeat role. No wonder Taryn Manning's "Danny" finds the scrawny sensitive kid irresistible even when a more conventionally hunky bad boy Shawn Reaves (of TV's "Tru Calling") is a rival (though the triangle plays out in an atypical fashion). She sensitively exudes toughness and vulnerability, in a different way than she did in "Hustle & Flow," as she blossoms into what "Mason" sees in her.The parents are also atypically not inconsequential and the excellent acting by the adults ratchets up tensions (though a post traumatic stressed syndrome Viet vet uncle and a grief-stricken mime out of Springsteen's "Reason to Believe" are a bit too much). Arliss Howard well captures a nice guy who nevertheless commits terrible emotional abuse on his wife and son. Mare Winningham starts out as the usual tippling oblivious homemaker, but brings real feeling to the last part of the film, in both an explosion of frustration and of an almost pieta scene of sympathetically stroking her inconsolable son's hair. Michelle Forbes is commendably almost unrecognizable in a very atypical role for her as a troubled single mom who destroys her daughter's self-esteem. The film well shows how the adults start to perceive their kids' feelings and how that powerful life-affirmation affects them.Even though what was obviously a minuscule budget necessitated no changes in hair styles or aging make-up etc. to back-up the interstitial "two years later," the weather beaten buildings and exquisite settings of meadows, creek, endless road and railroad tracks and big sky of bright clouds and overpowering rain are an essential component of the story, though I'm pretty sure the title image only appears once. While co-writer Robb Williamson's score captures the ominous mood and the indie rock song selections are illustrative, especially Sparklehorse ironically singing of a "wonderful life" and Cat Power covering Lou Reed, the visuals reminded me of a country song: "You know the world must be flat/'Cos when people leave town, they never come back." (from "Small Town Saturday Night" by Alger and DeVito, popularized by Hal Ketchum).There have been some other films lately dealing seriously with teens and parents amidst death and first love, including the suburban "Winter Solstice" and "Imaginary Heroes," but I was the most moved by "Dandelion." This is the most poignant, mature portrait of young people in rural America since "Tully" and "All the Real Girls."

I saw this movie at the Rotterdam-FilmFestival in Februari. It was a stormy dark day, a kind of weather which is also predominant in Dandelion.The Director was present and after the movie he told us a little bit about why he made the movie. He wanted to show in what circumstances the teenagers in the Midwest grow-up, how sad there existence can be.I didn't fully agree with him, because I think you can also extract positive things from Dandelion, for instance that teenagers can be happy with each other, even when there parents are very unhappy. But the final conclusion is indeed that the unhappiness of parents rests heavily on their children and passes inevitably on to them.I was pleasantly surprised by the actors' wonderful playing and I hope I will see more of them. It's a pity that so few 'alternative' American movies reach Europe. So, to encourage Directors of these kinds of movies to go on like this, I gave a 9, instead of an 8.