We've seen this sort of story before, time and again, and although the problematic storytelling style is rather refreshing, at least for this sort of subject matter, the narrative itself is more of the same, with not enough meat to compensate for familiarity. Alas, the final product is not quite able to secure its decency, its interesting aspects far outweighed by uninteresting ones, behind a story that isn't even fresh. There's not much of a sense of humanity or exposition to the characters, and on paper, they are by no means likable, but their portrayals are effective enough to join highlights in storytelling in providing glimpses of a more decent and engaging film. If nothing else is consistently enjoyable about this film, it is the performances by Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard that, on top of being conventional for the respective thespians, are underwritten, with hardly any extensive material, the limitations of which cannot keep these gifted talents from endearing, and selling a sense of motivation and passion for their characters with more effectiveness than the writers. What engagement value there is hardly ever is all the effective, but there are indeed some interesting moments in the telling of a rather uninteresting story, and they go anchored mostly by the performances. Every now and then, Kelly Reichardt manages to fulfill this potential, through a script that she co-wrote with frequent collaborator Jonathan Raymond which offers an interestingly meticulous, if tedious study on the process of committing eco-terrorism, and through direction that takes advantage both of Jeff Grace's extremely underused dark ambient score which proves to be lovely and complimentary to the atmosphere's subtle heights in tension, and of the aforementioned haunting visuals which prove to be just as engrossing.
This film's subject matter does not make for all that interesting of a story, but themes regarding the lengths certain people will go to do right by the environment are intriguing in their nature, and that establishes plenty of potential for dramatic intrigue. There's something kind of flat about Christopher Blauvelt's cinematography, which doesn't carry much flash to compensate for the usual technical shortcomings in an independent film like this, and yet, the drabness of the technical shortcomings, combined with a bleak coloration, compliments the sense of grit that defines what effective aspects there are to this overly subtle drama, and aesthetically speaking, the cinematography really comes to life when Blauvelt's lensing falls over near-haunting visuals that stress a particular setting in a fashion which is sometimes all-out lyrical in its providing memorably beautiful imagery, some of which carries purpose and substance. Well, I would take this film's messages more seriously if the film was more exciting, which isn't to say that there aren't commendable aspects here. Oh yeah, because otherwise, a lawsuit regarding the similarities between some independent drama and an obscure novel that never actually got adapted could taken as seriously as the eco-terrorist portrayed in this film. Well, at least you can take this film's title more seriously than the title of the novel "The Monkey Wrench Gang", which in turn made the lawsuit that the would-be makers of an adaptation of that novel slapped the makers of this "rip-off" with hard to take seriously. workin' on our night moves, tryin' to make some front page drive-in news!" I bet y'all were on the edge of your seats, either waiting for or fearing that I would make that reference, so there you go, but don't get too excited, because this film is decidedly not as fun as that song, nor is it even nearly as upbeat as its subject matter.
"Out past the cornfields where the woods got heavy, out in the back seat of my '60 Chevy, workin' on mysteries without any clues.
#WATCH NIGHT MOVES 1975 ONLINE MOVIE#
Up, it's yet more young movie stars commit acts of eco-terrorism, but no, this isn't really "The East 2", which is good, because this film at least owes me a title that makes me think about something actually entertaining. As if Jesse Eisenberg wasn't a big enough hipster icon of some sort, here's an obscure drama about extreme environmentalism starring him.
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