This exercise in improvisational acting and low-budget on-the-fly filmmaking is ultimately more interesting for its ambitions than entertaining or intriguing as a story. Director Straw Weisman set up 24 Digicams in 20 rooms of a Hollywood Hills mansion and invited a small army of actors--including John Ritter in his last starring role--to invent a tale, over 12 hours of continuous shooting, about personal and career comeuppance during an all-night party. Multiple split-screens showcase up to 12 different angles on the action at once, and while the initial annoyance of the conceit eventually fades, we're never quite sure how to handle the surveillance notion: the host of the party is obviously videotaping much of the event with his handheld camcorder, but are the other cameras supposed to be "real"--i.e., do the partygoers know they're being videotaped, is the homeowner a Peeping Tom, or is Weisman merely offering us a God's-eye view? All interpretations lead to credibility problems--knowing they were being recorded, these people wouldn't do or say half of what we see and hear, and yet there's a showiness to the other half that makes it seem as if the actors are playing for a camera. But that could be the case of a talented, overeager cast excited to be flying without a net. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include a 14-minute interview with filmmaker Straw Weisman, three segments of cast and crew interviews (28 min. total), a “Music Recording Session” featurette (8 min.), a pep talk for cast and crew by star John Ritter (3 min.), a text segment on Ritter, and a trailer. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a flawed film.] (M. Johanson)
Man of the Year
Monterey, 92 min., not rated, DVD: $24.95, Mar. 15 Volume 20, Issue 2
Man of the Year
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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