The Leslie Situation marks
CNGM's foray into the feature realm, keeping to their lighter fare
of romantic comedy. This is the story of a young man named
Crawford, a bit on the dorky side, who receives a 'karma-refund'
from heaven in the form of affection from his high school crush.
But a lot of baggage is brought into their new relationship,
primarily from his new girl's not-quite-ex-boyfriend. Also
in the mix is his best friend, buddie-girl Bonnie (an actress
you'll recognize from other CNGM items), and an all-knowing
high school 'stock exchange' that is constantly evaluating all of
the relationships in progress.
As with previous CNGM
vids,
the focus here is more on story and performances than on technical
achievement. While the shooting and editing is passable,
don't expect top notch videography. Instead, expect to
(eventually) get pulled into a world you once knew, loaded with
teenage angst and hormones, where kids act very strangely thinking
it's normal. You'll cringe when you remember you were the
same way at one point.
Crawford's misguided
adventures in teenage love take him on a roller-coaster ride.
Aside from the emotional highs and lows, he even ends up taking a
few trips to heaven, and having a late-night talk with God
(who apparently is a ginger-snap fan). After relying on his
friends, eventually he finds himself alienating them as the
relationship takes it's toll, and he's faced with the decisions
about what's important in life at seventeen.
So let's talk about the
good stuff first. It's nice to see people in roles that suit
their age. Even if the acting isn't top calibre, it's very
easy to buy Crawford, Leslie, Bonnie, Quint and the others as regular
hormone-driven teens, because their age and personalities fit.
Having watched fifteen-year-olds play hitmen and hardened
cops, it's nice to forget about the obvious age discrepencies and
just get into the story. Performances tended to be
drama-class style, overplayed, but the principals did fairly well.
Particularly good was Bonnie, a natural actress and a real asset
to CNGM.
The story wasn't bad,
though it did have a few scenes where it slowed down a bit.
For the most part the events of the plot flowed well, meaning the
script was likely revised a number of times before shooting.
Good work there. The ending I particularly liked. It
came off as realistic, and was still satisfying as Crawford learns
what he needed to learn.
Plot devices were very
creative, even if their execution seemed a bit awkward. The
stock market that tracks the relationships of the characters is a
great idea and works well, until we break into a psuedo newscast
highlighting a major break-up. While intended to be amusing,
this diversion came off more like a failed SNL sketch for me.
Where the movie falls
short is primarily in the technical areas. And I've always
felt that if a movie does fall short, this is where it should.
We can look past the technical in no-budget cinema when it comes
to new groups. But there is the problem - CNGM isn't new.
While their shooting has improved mildly since their last entries,
I was hoping for a bigger jump in production value. The
movie still seems to be shot entirely with available light, in
average locations (heaven is a park somewhere), and it all has
that VHS-y softened look to it. But to be honest, this gripe
is still a minor one, I only bring it up to be complete. The
sound quality is good, as is the music by Ohm, Muszynski, and
Toordman.
So overall I'd recommend
picking up The Leslie Situation, particularly if you enjoy
romantic comedies. It's a bit silly at times, and doesn't
really pull the heartstrings much, but it's still a nice story
about a guy growing up. Good work Nick!
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