Title: 86 MELROSE AVENUE
Director: Lili Matta
Starring: Dade Elza, Anastasia Antonia, and Gregory Zarian
Movie length: 1 hours 23 minutes
This film had a strange opening and the story went back and forth between many different characters, this made it somewhat difficult to follow what was happening at first. Eventually it points the audience in the right direction telling the story of ex-marine named Travis that has a really bad case of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome).
He comes home from dinner and seems incredibly insecure about his wife hanging out with another man that was one of her old High School friends, the two get into it over their difference of opinion on liberation in the Middle east and the film takes off from there. The acting is okay for the most part, Travis seemed like the lead character but the story also focused on a man from Syria and a woman from Libya, that just happened to cross paths at this art gathering. I did enjoy how the situation that Travis forced these characters into allowed them all to confront their own issues and mortalities, however that didn’t come until around forty-five minutes into the film.
One of my biggest issues with this film was a flashback scene where Travis’s commanding officer is interrogating a Libyan soldier or civilian and the camera work is just atrocious, in the middle of the scene the camera jerks up and it takes away from the film. Right before this particular scene the camera does what is called a hard zoom in film making terms, this also takes away from the effect of the film.
As a viewer this took me into the technical rather than keeping my eyes on the movie. I had to watch the scene three more times to be sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, the shot just looked so unprofessional from a production stand point. Over all I’d give 86 MELROSE AVENUE a 5 out of 10, it tries to show how a soldier that has come home from war can have a mental breakdown or be set off by even the smallest thing, and that there can be consequences for such. Though from a film making standpoint it could use some work in editing and acting, I did enjoy the way this film ended over all.
86 MELROSE AVENUE will be released via VOD services starting on April 20th.
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