Frownland (2007) User Reviews

Deeply distinctive, memorable, peculiar, but also repulsive

[fzyukocfuniucj · 6/10 · 25 April 2007]

I wavered between loving and hating this movie as I watched it. The movie has some good, offbeat humorous moments, but they're a bit few and far between. The main character is a schlub who is virtually completely incapable of effectively communicating with anyone around him. This is a type of character that doesn't generally get any attention in film, so focusing on him is an intriguing idea, but it only half works for me. The movie brings up the question sometimes faced by independent movies focusing on unlikeable individuals: Why would you want to spend nearly two hours with such a person? On the other hand, after it was over, a former roommate said, "Thank you for being SUCH a good roommate!" while another friend commented that he appreciates all his existing friends much more after having seen this movie, because the characters were so screwed-up and annoying. The movie has some funny scenes also focusing on the main character's roommate, who is much more articulate but also a total deadbeat. Perhaps the movie could use some judicious editing from its current form (roughly 109-115 minutes at a screening in NYC in April 2007). Interestingly, the movie doesn't spell out the relationships between various characters -- I suspect perhaps as a way of avoiding "exposition anvils" and keeping things as realistic as possible. I would've liked to learn more about the character of Laura, who remains reticent and mysterious.

Also, kudos to the movie for redressing the total lack of mucus in modern cinema. There is a decent amount of realistic and well-placed snot in this film. In one case, the snot is totally hilarious and unexpected. Maybe it should have been called "Snotland."

sigh I'm afraid I'm living this movie

[nameismike69 · 7/10 · 30 August 2022]

But I can make a better one about myself... Is this a actor with all his head tics... Pulling his hair touching his face ... Just nervous around people lives with his 78 year mother and crazy sister... Graduated from HS where there was so much pomposity it winds up on Facebook. And it's the same ... No one likes you and you fade from Facebook to a lonely life no one loves you .. I'm not annoying like the character in this film but my life went by too fast I'm in my mid 50's thinking about where I can get Fentanyl Fudge. I feel life serves no purpose half of me wants to be Anti Christ and watch humanity just die and the other half knows it's not going to happen and I will on my own will make that sarafice .. So I'm up to The Who book scene which I have personally owned since 1982 . And still sits on my shelf.. I have a room filled to the brim with music video tapes records CD's computers just crap to fill the nothingness and know it's nothing ... I don't feel anyone loves me or cares... So you do the same you stop caring .. They stop caring or never did... Yeah I can make movie that you just die in the end. As I watch... Get it.

A Bizarre Character Study

[Canadian_Amateur_Film_Dude · 7/10 · 22 March 2020]

I truly feel the pain, confusion and sheer degradation that the main character goes through. It is painfully awkward to watch his mental state take a beating at every opportunity even though I realize there are many people in the real world who likely go through this each day.

I would recommend this to a certain kind of viewer - one who is secure enough in their own life to confront the mental slaughter the characters face. At times it is all too real!

Just alright

[Jalow547 · 6/10 · 8 November 2018]

This is a film about a few New Yorkers who are struggling in life. It is actually very good at moments, but not great at others. The tone of the film is very uneven and unbalanced, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it feels unintentional here. At first we think maybe this is a comedy but we realize slowly that it is not.

The acting is actually very good. It feels strange at first until we realize that these are not the kinds of characters we normally see in films. But they exist in real life and here we get a chance too see them on the screen.

The writer and director of this movie stated that he was influenced by the highly acclaimed film Naked, and it is clearly evident here. In both films the characters speak fluently to each other about philosophy and their opinions on life. I felt like it actually felt more real in this one. It was better done. But it never felt completely real in either film, in my opinion. But maybe that's just because I don't encounter people who talk like that in real life. Maybe they're out there.

I like the camerawork a lot. The film felt a lot like Slackers at times, but maybe that's just because of the grainy 16mm look and the clothing the characters wore. The characters at times felt like they could have come from the world of that film, but at other times they felt like they belonged more in a John Cassavetes film.

It feels a bit like a Cassavetes film in several ways, particularly toward the end. The ending is very good and gritty and raw and not your typical Hollywood ending by any stretch. And while I feel like the story itself could have been revised and made better, the story as it was could not have been told any better.

Refreshingly bleak and weird.

[peacecreep · 10/10 · 26 April 2009]

What happens when someone has so much social anxiety that they cease to function? How alone can one man get? When the mundane crap we have to do in order to be part of society gets to be too much, what happens? Frownland explores these questions. Definitely a startling original debut from Bronstein. The tone is strange and claustrophobic as we get inside the mind of a guy named Keith that is so messed up he can hardly form a proper sentence. We follow him around as he tries to make contact with people and function day to day. Most of us have known people like this- people that say "sorry" too much or "i appreciate it" when there's nothing to appreciate. So we know there are people out there like this but why would someone want to make a movie about them? Well, because its interesting and Bronstein and the lead actor, Dore Mann, do an excellent job. This film is about as un-commercial as a film can get. A few friends filmed it over the course of a few years as they saved money. It was shot on 16mm and the scratched film look is beautifully low budget. With no distributer, this may be a tough one to find, I think it's been screening randomly for the past year or so. Hopefully it'll be on DVD at some point. I saw it at the Silent Movie Theater here in LA. There were 10 people in the audience, among them Crispin Glover, if that tells you anything about how weird this movie is. Highly recommended.

Strong storyteller on the rise

[julief82 · 7/10 · 21 January 2020]

Ronald Bronstein wrote and directed this movie. He is one of my favorite screenwriters, best known for his collaborations with the Safdie brothers. Here he tries his hand at directing as well, and while he's not in his finest form, that's okay. You can see the mark of a strong storyteller here, and his work since this one has proved that he learned from this one and just kept getting better.

This is a film that abuses its audience

[NJtoTX · 2/10 · 17 March 2007]

I saw this film at SXSW with the director in attendance. Quite a few people walked out, and the audience could barely muster even polite applause at the end. Of the 60 or 70 films I've seen at this festival, Frownland is among the worst.

At 106 minutes, it is at least 95 minutes too long. You get to watch the main character's failed and drawn out attempts to communicate, in extended real time. The same grimaces, hand over mouth motions, kinetic and frantically repeated words and syllables over and over and over again - WE GET THE POINT.

One site actually compares this work to early Mike Leigh. What drugs would you have to be on to make that statement? Given that Frownland is a Captain Beefheart song, maybe you'd have to be able to enjoy Trout Mask Replica on heavy rotation to appreciate this film. Unbelievably, this won a jury award at the festival. You can bet it did not win an audience award.

Better bring a doggie bag

[adamdonaghey · 10/10 · 30 April 2007]

Frownland is like one of those intensely embarrassing situations where you end up laughing out loud at exactly the wrong time; and just at the moment you realize you shouldn't be laughing, you've already reached the pinnacle of voice resoundness; and as you look around you at the ghostly white faces with their gaping wide-open mouths and glazen eyes, you feel a piercing ache beginning in the pit of your stomach and suddenly rushing up your throat and... well, you get the point.

But for all its unpleasantness and punches in the face, Frownland, really is a remarkable piece of work that, after viewing the inarticulate mess of a main character and all his pathetic troubles and mishaps, makes you want to scratch your own eyes out and at the same time, you feel sickenly sorry for him.

It would have been a lot easier for me to simply walk out of Ronald Bronstein's film, but for some insane reason, I felt an unwavering determination to stay the course and experience all the grainy irritation the film has to offer. If someone sets you on fire, you typically want to put it out: Stop! Drop! And Roll! But with this film, you want to watch the flame slowly engulf your entire body. You endure the pain--perhaps out of spite, or some unknown masochistic curiosity I can't even begin to attempt to explain.

Unfortunately, mainstream cinema will never let this film come to a theater near you. But if you get a chance to catch it, prepare yourself: bring a doggie bag.

Hideous

[brandon_veracka · 3/10 · 25 July 2021]

It is beyond my imagination how much of a conceited hipster you'd have to be to give this movie a 10 out of 10. "Frownland" is like sewage that's been distilled into something worse -- like the jenkem of cinema. If you're a total masochist you might enjoy this.

Strange as it may seem, I really was trying to get into this 'film'. I understand what it is trying to show me and how it wants to show it, but I hate it. At every corner it just turns you off and makes you feel sick (almost literally). The cinematography makes it even more difficult to watch, unless you enjoy unnecessarily close and shaking camera shots throughout a 106-minute film. There's really not much else to say. This movie is awful.

Funny & Frazzled

[plasticpennies · 10/10 · 27 March 2007]

A very strange and compelling movie. It's about a very awkward and tightly wound man who attempts to navigate his life as a door-to-door fundraiser/salesman. The director was able to capture a very unnerving tone that really served the story well. Original and unsettling while also finding a great deal of humor in the pain that accompanies life. There is a sequence at a testing facility that really stood out and made me laugh out loud which is not something I do as frequently as I should. One of the more memorable films I've seen in a long while. Hasn't left my mind and I look forward to future efforts by Bronstein. Fantastic performances all around. The simple line "I really appreciate it." is now iconic to me.

Heavy handed and clumsy

[CapnTripswithBerries · 3/10 · 16 October 2022]

This is one of those films that screams as loudly as possible, I want to be taken seriously...which sort of defeats the purpose of the whole thing. This is obviously a work of passion, which is why I give it as many stars as I did. I would not, however, call it a good movie. The consistently off-set camera angles, repetitive dialogue, and drawn-out scenes make the director's point early in the movie. These devices are then perpetuated until the point becomes mundane and the movie becomes meaningless. For the viewer, this movie is the equivalent of a lengthy email typed in all upper case by an irritating neighbor.

A film that challenges you to watch.

[pixilatedwunderbar · 9/10 · 30 December 2008]

In a year of pretentious muck like "Synecdoche, New York" a film born out of Charlie Kaufman's own self-indulgence, comes a film that is similarly hard to watch but about three times as important. "Frownland" is a labor of love by the crew, the actors and the filmmaker, shot over years by friends. It traces a man who cannot communicate through his thoroughly authentic, REAL Brooklyn world. The people that you see are a step beyond even the stylization of the "mumblecore" movement. They are real people, painfully trapped in their own self-contained neuroses, unwilling to change, unable. The real world to them is their own set of delusions and because this is a film about people who are so profoundly out of touch, it is very difficult to watch. It is 16mm film-making without proper light, money or any of the other factors that would make a film "slick", but its honesty can not be understated, a fact that would cause a room full of people to dismiss it and for Richard Linklater to give it an award as he did at SXSW. This does remind of films like "Naked" or the best of the "mumblecore". It is a film that is not for everyone, but one that challenges you to watch and grows on you the longer you think about it.

very expressive !

[coo_coo10 · 8/10 · 24 September 2008]

I found the film quite expressive , the way the main character was lost but at the same much more clear about certain things in life than people who mocked him ( his flatmate for example ) .

he was tortured and you loved to watch him being tortured ! it had this perverted side which was frightening but we were all happy to see him come out of the misery again .

it was like a game character or pan-man through a mine-land or to enemy and we love to watch him under sniper attack or fire but then at the end we are happy to see him survive ...

.

seriously watch this movie

[mattmalinov · 10/10 · 28 March 2018]

This is the one movie that has captured the feelings of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness so well. i would go as far as to call it a masterpiece. through the movie i felt so anxious and it genuinely made me uncomfortable. my stomach started to hurt. i cant recommend this film enough.

Unique , hard to watch.

[aratron-00391 · 10/10 · 12 September 2021]

There are so many people like Keith.. so desperate for acceptance and companionship. It's hard to watch. It's not easy to like Keith, not because he is bad but just an annoying misfit. Completely socially awkward. His loneliness has made him nuts. I know several people like this... its painful to watch ... but very real. The movie accomplishes alot by accurately displaying what being alone and socially akward can do to a persons mental health. Great performance by Dore Mann .

Fantastic!

[Eichermueller · 10/10 · 24 March 2011]

I was surprised that I enjoyed this film as much as I did. I had one of those "nothing to do" evenings and came across Frownland as an alternative, and as mentioned already, I really enjoyed it. You actually see how the main character drowns in his phobias deeper and deeper. You get a sense of what it is like to live in a big city and try to cope with various phobias at the same time. At times I felt sorry for him, sympathetic even. It seemed everywhere he went he was rejected and had to box his way through. Every doorbell he rang was just another rejection and another vitamin shot that helped his phobias and neuroses increase. I recommend this film if you are into psychology.