Where's Marlowe?

Channel surfing one night, saw Miguel Ferrer, stopped flicking and I'm so glad I did. How do movies like this not make more impact at the box office? Probably because there are no explosions or chase scenes and the audience was forced to think. Ahh, the horrors of having to think. Bullets don't fly around, but boy does the plot ever! I found myself thoroughly entertained throughout and even a bit confused sometimes, but I think that was the idea. Solid performances from everyone, including the script and direction. The camera work was excellent. Miguel Ferrer is a wonderful actor and more surprising than the standard top ten Hollywood throws at us nonstop. Miguel, this piece of work is rock solid. Keep it up.

As Hollywood continues to dumb down in its relentless pursuit of the lowest common denominator, a film as funny and smart as "Where's Marlowe" is just too good to be true. I was lucky enough to catch it at the First Annual Worldfest-Flagstaff film festival, where it was a huge hit. Unfortunately, the film is such a clever 'reveal' that to describe it at all would be to take away from the pleasure of being caught in its web. So all I can suggest is that you do whatever you can to get this film seen. Bug the distributors! Demand it at festivals! You'll be glad you did.

The premise: Two young documentary filmmakers set out to make a film about a two-man detective agency in Los Angeles, led by Miguel Ferrer as John Boone. But things fall apart, and they get involved in the story, losing professional distance and objectivity, with hilarious results.

This is an absolutely marvelous film, and the mockumentary format lends an odd feel to it that's hard to explain. You'll just have to go see it.

To say this is a noir curiosity is to say The Bible has some colorful characters and quaint storytelling. Takes a good half hour to get going, but for those who keep faith, some serious plot twists and rather impressive surprises are in store, including one which takes the basic brilliant twist of CHINATOWN and goes it one better. It's very difficult to discuss this movie without spoiling things, however, so suffice to say there is more going on than meets the eye (frankly too much), and the filmmakers set out a challenging premise and very nearly pull off the impossible resolution. That they finally don't quite do it is almost more of a relief than a surprise, because given the dollar fifty budget and clear guerilla student filmmaking style which permeates this apparent vanity project for Ferrer, it would have been embarrassing had they actually hit a home run for about 1/10,000th of the cost of a typical low budget studio noir.

However, this is enough of a near-miss that anyone who is interested in noir (especially the iconic detective stuff personified by Mitchum and Bogart and Powell and Montgomery) would probably benefit from a look. The tone uneasily shifts between mockumentary and b-movie gumshoe melodrama, but occasionally succeeds at both just enough that the excursion is worth it for fans. Those who aren't patient will probably just scratch their head, but I'd guess if you've read this far, you are one of those who would enjoy it. Ferrer makes the most of his ample screentime. The rest of the cast are unknown to me; the black cameraman cum private eye has a few amusing moments, including the mugging of a few rather familiar lines of dialogue. 7.5 / 10

I love this flick. I went to a test screening in L.A. a year or two (?) before its release, had the opportunity to make comments about the film, etc. Was looking forward to it coming out... and then never heard of it again until it came out two years or whatever later on. I must have been the only person in the screening who liked it.

Took the wife to it when it came out in theaters, and it still made an impression on me the second time. Sure, it's a bit uneven and takes a while to figure out where it's going, but it's a fun movie with some neat twists and more originality than many other films out there these days.