Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
... View MoreVery well executed
... View MorePeople are voting emotionally.
... View MoreThrough painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
... View MoreThis movie is very interesting if you see it through my eyes. I was surprised of how lucky the kids were to stay alive, or not abused. Parents failed to take proper care of them. Even the father played by James is so careless, he put his kids in unnecessary danger, I think. The other parents are absent or distracted. None of them are really thinking about them. I don't mean to be overprotective, no way, but there is a line between careless and careful. The beautiful kid that goes to the young man´s house is in danger. The little brother pushed by his older brother is so scary, and the father is so innocent or negligent or in denial, something not good for the kids anyway. And the three boys with a gun hunting a lion, that finds him and then by a stupid error, got saved of being attacked, wow, I was thinking about the close they were of a tragedy. Parents don't do their job, as if they have something more important to do. At the end, that's all that matters, if something happens to your son, you will hardly recover from it. If this is autobiographical, I send my love to James . I am very happy that he is alive. I like him very much, that's why I saw this movie.
... View MoreThere were two things I was thinking throughout this movie. "Poor Joe" and " Why are Chris and Ted such dicks?". The first story is about Chris, a privileged boy with a loving father who want to spend time with him. When they go hiking, he pushes his little brother onto the rocks for no reason. They get lost, then find their way home.The second story is about Joe, a kind, yet depressed kid. He is unfairly accused of stealing gum at the store. He seems to have no adults in his life that he can trust other than the complete stranger who he goes home with. The man is supposed to be nice, but taking a little kid home with you is a felony. At school, Joe has a one-sided conflict with his "best friend" Ted. Ted seems to verbally and physically bully Joe by pinching him in his private parts. Joe fights back after he is provoked. They say it is just a game, but Joe clearly doesn't like it and Ted doesn't care. Ted continues to do it and gets Joe in trouble twice. For some reason Joe is blamed for this by the school and by Ted's mother. Ted doesn't even care that his "best friend" lost his brother or that his father left.The final story is about Ted. His main conflict is that he and Joe aren't friends anymore and he thinks he is the victim. He can't understand how physically bullying someone, getting him in trouble twice, blaming him, calling him a very hurtful nickname, and not being there when he is depressed might end a friendship. I know these are ten year old boys and being mean is their way of communicating, but how are we supposed to believe that these boys are friends. Ted starts hanging out with Chris as his rebound friend, who is a jerk to Joe for some reason. He wasn't even part of the conflict. The three "friends" are brought together when they decide to hunt a mountain lion. They fight over the gun and Joe gets shot. Only then does Ted actually seem to care about Joe. At the end of the movie they become friends again, though it is unclear why. Ted never apologizes to Joe, even for nearly killing him.The moral of this story, some friendships can be very harmful. PLEASE COMMENT BELOW. I WANT FEEDBACK. I don't think I fully interpreted this movie correctly. If I did, it deserves a much lower rating. What do you think?
... View MoreSet in 1985 in the city of Palo Alto, California,this movie written and directed by Gabrielle Demeesterre, is based on 2 short stories from James Franco's 2013 book "A California Childhood". Upon reading the premise of the film, I wondered if it it would compare in any way to Rob Reiner's 1986 classic "Stand By Me",but it really doesn't compare, like very few, if any movies could.The story revolves around the coming-of-age adventures of 3 fifth graders Chris (Everett Meckler), Joe (Alec Mansky), and Ted (Calum John), who are all newcomers to the silver screen. The boys are trying to cope with friendships, broken families, the death of loved ones, missing family pets, as well as an encroachment on Palo Alto by mountain lions, who are feeling the pinch of expanding cities into their natural habitats and thus have been entering neighborhoods looking for water and food.Although this indie maintains a good sense of foreboding throughout, it never seems to actualize enough dramatic tension to be engrossing. Also, there are some plot elements that remain too ambiguous, such as the actual intentions of the young man Henry (Henry Hopper), who rather creepily befriends Joe and invites him to his house to read comic books.All in all, I thought this movie has some good moments, but there weren't enough of them to cohere into an absorbing and enjoyable film.
... View MoreSometimes Yosemite felt like the equivalent of watching paint dry.It's suppose to create some type of emotion in me, but I did not catch it. despite understanding the story of the tree boys that dominate the movie. But there came a point for me were I just was not emotionally invested enough in what I saw on the screen. I wanted to like it too, but it falls very short of the goal it tries to accomplish. A little too dead pan.It's impressive that putting James Franco on the poster was enough to get this thing released in the tiny theater I saw it in, but it's not entertaining enough as a movie for nothing too happen. it's too real and true to the source material that did not transfer over too well.Maybe works better as the book it was based on. I like Franco's other novel turned movie Palo Alto better
... View More