Rating (1 to 10) : 6
Summary: A 20's movie shown in modern
context....or vice versa..
If you want to get a feel of some of the differences between
today and the 1920s, this film is for you. The level of detail is good, so much
so that you wonder if this film isn't just an exercise to show how much
research Adam Abraham, writer and director, did on the ‘20s. His details are
sometimes amazing, sometimes amusing - he points out differences in phone
numbers, auto ownership (most people in the '20s didn't own cars), dress, slang
(what we now label "pigs" was called a "flatfoot" back in
the 20's), vocabulary, mannerisms, and the role of the subservient Negro, which
transformed from a wise but reserved counselor for the main white male
protagonist to an expressive gay sidekick for the main white female character.
But the depictions and details of the '20s life lose steam about halfway thru
the movie and then the movie relies on cultural stereotypes we have of the
'20's. The actor playing the main character, Johnny Twennies, went thru an
extraordinary effort to mimic the vocabulary, slang, diction, and body language
depicted in films from the 20's but it gets tiresome, as if the script
"over-does" his part.
The best part of the movie is how Adam shows the inception of modern cinematic
techniques by executing them in the 20's style. It's somewhat of a homage to
film history but it looks like Abraham tried to show ALL the cinematic
techniques, slowing the pace down.
If you try to watch this movie as another regular movie, you won't like it. The
plot is a crude caricature of a standard drama movie of the '20's and thus, it
feels very simplistic to most of today's cinema audience. Instead, the amusing
part of it is noticing the difference in slang, in customs, in social
behaviors, and other subtle facets of life between the 1920's and the current
time. And again, Abraham does a good job of covering almost every difference,
from society's attitudes towards smoking, society's dominant view on
homosexuality, the gender roles in the game of seduction, and even how it was
much easier to hail a cab in New York in the 20's than it is today.