Beside
Still Waters
(2013/Cinedigm DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: B Film: C+
Daniel's
parents just died and he has to sell the house, so he has invited his
friends over for one last huzzah to relive their glory days of high
school drinking, drugs, pranks and wild sex. It's a weekend where
anything goes and there are no rules, but when secrets start coming
out of the closets will their friendships ever be the same again?
Daniel is an adult who never grew up, after his parents died in an
accident the first thing he does is buy tons of beer and has a party
with his old high school drinking buddies in Chris Lowell's Beside
Still Waters
(2013).
While
his friends (like him) have a fondness for their childhood memories
at the house, they aren't however really fond of Daniel. Rather they
came because they feel guilty and needed to escape from their own
problems which they have either in their own life/marriage (but then
isn't that what friends are there for?). In the end, they discover
all of them have skeletons and regrets in the closet, and only finds
out after drinking all night. Daniel commits adultery, another guy
comes out as he's gay, and the girls complain about their marriages
and lack of good sex. All good things must come to an end, but will
their secrets break and destroy the relationships between them all?
This
film seemed to sum up the American lifestyle/mid-life crisis,
funerals, and typical college weekends. The world seems to look
better through a bottom of an empty beer bottle ...that is until the
next morning and a person wakes up and says "Oh my god. What
have I done?" While I don't recommend this as a lifestyle or
solution to a mid-life crisis, the characters themselves were
interesting and the relationships/stories to another, throw in a bit
of drinking, games, skinny dipping, drugs, and you almost got a
Shakespeare play going on.
The
anamorphically enhanced image and lossy Dolby Digital sound were as
dull as the film, while extras include deleted scenes, alternate
ending, behind the scenes, and commentary.
-
Ricky Chiang
