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The Last Beautiful Girl
USA 2015
produced by Grace Hathaway, Emily Joseph, Josh Gonzalez, Carlo Rodriguez, Derek Babb, James Christopher, Terissa Kelton, Andrea Dettling, Morgan Floyd, Jason Tostevin, Michelle Mower, Billy Kring, Elizabeth Kring, Brendan Johnson, Mike Donis, Jessica Bybee-Dziedzic (executive), Nathan Bybee (executive), Chris Copple (executive) for Twitchy Dolphin Productions
directed by James Christopher
starring Morgan Floyd, Jae McCain, Derek Babb, Shelby Cullinan, Mike Donis, Shelby Surdam, Terissa Kelton, Janet Mayson, Eric Adair, Tracey Ely, Sean Koetting, Hannah M. Holub, Rachel Clark-Spear, Allison Gregory, Denise Downs, Xan Angelovich, Vicky Illk, Billy Kring, Andy Bertelsen, Brittany Flurry, Nick Loritsch, Reece Ryan, Sophie Buckfield, Sydne Clark, Jami Harris, Marcie Price, Stephanie Dunbar, Al Patino, Dyonne Roberts, James Christopher, Sacha Ryder, Anna Claire Smith
written by James Christopher
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Jules (Morgan Floyd) and Jason (Jae McCain) meet and fall in love
almost immediately, and serious relationship grows out of this soon,
including Jules having Jason meet her rather unforgiving father (Eric
Adair) and the like - but when he asks for her hand in marriage, she
declines as she has just met Roger (Mike Donis), of all people her boss,
and has fallen in love with him - she didn't want it and has certainly not
set out to do so, but sometimes, things happen ... In the meantime,
Jason's roommate Micah (Derek Babb) has a hot relationship with Nicole
(Terissa Kelton) - which is basically based on all different kinds of sex
(including threesomes and the like), which he finds great for the longest
time, but eventually he finds it lacking, emotionally. At the same time,
Jules' sister Lauren (Shelby Cullinan) is the girlfriend of musician Bug
(Sean Koetting) - but only until she finds out that her decision to ignore
his penchant for groupies was only hurting herself. When Micah and Lauren
first meet, one can already feel there's love in the air. Back to Jules
and Jason: Jules still cares for Jason but is not happy in love with Roger
- problem is, Jason not only still cares for her, but wants to fight to
get her back ... but he hasn't got a clue how to do that, so apart from a
few half-hearted attempts at romantic gestures and a few too many
alcoholic excesses that really put her off, there's really nothing much he
has to go for himself ... and then he learns that they're going to marry -
so will he be big enough to finally walk away from the story or try to
have his revenge with everything he's got to destroy everything forever
... Now before I go deeper into this movie, I have to state, I
don't like romcoms, at least not those produced in this day and age (I
love films like Ninotchka or Bringing
Up Baby, mind you, but they seem to come from another universe rather
than being forefathers of today's romantic comedies), and I think much of
this has to do with the fact that they're produced specifically for a
target audience I do not belong to - with bigger budget movies that's not
even so much an assumption but a proven fact, I'll just never be part of
that "female audience" segent ;) Having said that, The Last
Beautiful Girl goes out of its way to include viewers like me into
their peer group, via trying to stay away from sappiness, by cracking the
occasional crude and blunt joke to break up the mood, by steering clear of
too many "looking for Mr. Right"-clichés ... and even by the
occasional appearance of a movie blogger on-screen that explains away the
genre mainstays to come (even if they don't always come). And add to that
a directorial effort that clearly favours indie over rom-com style, and a
pretty competent ensemble cast, and you've got yourself a cool piece of
genre cinema - especially if you don't like the genre!
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