Carolina Caroline – Official Trailer | Samara Weaving, Kyle Gallner | In Theaters June 5<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though Rehmeier undeniably navigates the same blazed trails of Bonnie and Clyde, on account of an obviously similar plot structure, there’s a vast stylistic and thematic uniqueness to the exploration of his complex characters and orchestration of his established world-building, that allows Carolina Caroline to break away from preconceived expectations, supplanting what is undeniably the director’s greatest film to date, as a result of the directional versatility that he supplants to such an effortlessly engaging joy ride into the depths of devastation. Like his previous efforts in Snack Shack and the vastly underrated Dinner in America, Rehmeier taps into a particular place and time that feels thoroughly distinct in its consciousness, without the need to utilize it as a heavily documented gimmick of its own within the development of the story, and with the benefits of a country folk soundtrack underscoring so much small town simplicity to the balance of breathtaking imagery from Jean-Philippe Bernier’s tranquilly serene cinematography, Rehmeier revels in the confines of a beautiful world with its own underlining moral imperfections in design, in turn allowing Caroline and Oliver the necessary dejected isolation factor from the rest of the world, in order to comprise a road trip of crime that leads to an intended destination. On the subject of their love at first sight spontaneity, we’re not only intoxicated by the mesmerizingly radiant chemistry of Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner eliciting a steamily sexy dynamic towards their foundational romance, but also a thoroughly layered characterized development that essentially makes their bond the backbone that so much of the movie’s momentum and corresponding stakes rest its optimized weight upon, unearthing some endearingly indulging conversations between that solidifies the film and its commentary as so much more than just another crime thriller. While the Earth-shattering climax certainly proves Rehmeier’s ability to hold an audience in the palm of his hands, with gripping tension and masterful sequencing that leaves them on the edge of their seats in sifting through so much unguarded vulnerability of the characters, I actually found the most rewarding and entertaining moments of the movie to be those quietly intimate conversations between Caroline and Oliver, where with the utilizing of some authentically rhythmic dialogue crafted from screenwriter Tom Dean, in the back and forth balance between them, the dynamic duo deconstruct the loosely undefined morality of their law-breaking extra curricular activities, where they debate if they’re good people pretending to be bad, or bad people pretending to be good, and while the answer feels dependent entirely upon the interpretation of the audience, there’s plenty of evidence to be realized in Caroline’s own contorted realities among the unfinished business of her rocky parental relationships, in turn providing ample food for thought of those of us unknowingly being products of an environmental system utilized to exploit our geographic complacency in life. Because of such, the bond between Caroline and Oliver certainly begins as a physically life-altering attraction between two young and beautiful people living free and recklessly irresponsible, but as the film persists into its second hour, it becomes painfully evident that each of them represents a filled void to the life of the other, where Oliver represents the thrillingly dangerous opportunity away from Caroline’s routine monotony, and Caroline represents the sought after stability in Oliver’s never ending road trip of a life, and even when their talking points casually deviate to the bigger picture of a cruel and exploitative world, Dean pays vital empathy to the designs of these dangerously uncontrollable characters, and as a result, we understand and even support their irreplaceable value in one another, without fully justifying the extent of their intended avenues towards attaining the ideal lives that each of them understandably deserve. Dean also has a naturally seamless way of articulating intended aspects to scenes and characters, without them meandering heavily in ways that would become an obvious focal point of the script and movie’s surmising drama. In terms of spoilers, I will tread carefully here, but there’s a third act development with Caroline that stands as a result of the subtle evidence casually distributed throughout in her physical responses to the difficulties that stem from attempting a robbery, and when you consider this impact not only reshapes the dynamic of these tense sequences with increasing vulnerability for Caroline’s dreaded disposition, but also builds expansive layers on the bond between her and Oliver, it allows the movie’s ending to land with the kind of bittersweet impact that might elicit tears from a couple members of the audience, making a secondary watch all the more a necessity, having now known what I didn’t all along. In deviating back to the prominence of the presentation, as previously commended, Bernier’s brilliance towards intoxicating imagery delivered repeatedly to this movie’s canvas, makes him the dependable driving force delivering on Rehmeier’s distinct vision, with his best moments conjuring tight framing practices and softly delicate lighting to flourish the detectable intimacy between the movie’s lovesick characters, whose passion radiates from every frame as a result of Bernier immersing us in the kind of intuitively yearning physicality and corresponding pillow talk that feels too natural to feel awkward in a packed auditorium. In a lot of ways, this makes Bernier feel like the undefined third member of this established romance, as it’s his unwavering eye that authentically renders both the highs and lows of this couple’s unforeseen difficulty, reveling in singular character framing that isolates an internalized emotional response that other characters in scene aren’t capably reading, and as to where I’ve always preferred to be at eye level with the characters, without any kind of advantage squandering the unpredictability factor of bombshell developments, Bernier’s fearless focus gives us a deeper sense of confrontation persisting beneath the registries of these characters, allowing the performances from Weaving and Gallner to feel all the more levitative by the camera always being in the right place to render their conflicted introspection. On the subject of those dominating performances, Weaving incredibly gives the most emotionally draining performance of her entire career, and it’s one that not only showcases the remarkable range of Weaving to deviate responsively at the drop of a dime to a scene’s spontaneity, but also one fully conveyed on the evolving duality of Caroline’s rapidly expanding personality, on account of her newly adopted life of crime. During our initial introduction, Caroline is a shy and gawky presence, whose only readability can be gauged on the zeroed in eyes of her passionate swooning of Oliver’s mystique, but once crime has contorted her perception, we read a lot more confidence and resiliency into her demeanor, in many ways that make her feel like the driving force behind the duo’s destructive tendencies. As for Gallner’s Oliver, the actor brandishes a comfortably cool charisma that makes him feel in charge of any situation, regardless of its increasing danger or intensity, but beyond that a softly disarming side in his admiration for Caroline that makes him both a lover and a fighter to the movie’s benefit, and while Gallner has already been one of Hollywood’s best kept secrets throughout commanding turns in Strange Darling and the aforementioned Dinner in America, his turn here might just be the one to break him into the mainstream stratosphere, especially considering Gallner’s partnership with Rehmeier feels like the next dynamic duo between actor and director<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing even comes close to squandering this movie’s entertainingly endearing appeal, but there are two creative conflicts that threaten to stunt its growth, beginning with the overindulgence of montages during the movie’s first half, which keep us from living and growing with these characters. These sequences are done to abruptly swift through the first few robberies of the couple’s crime objective, and while they do a good job of illustrating the growing capabilities of Caroline as a powerful force to be reckoned with, combined with the couple’s success and failure ratio in attempting such, the abrupt jump from her time as a learning and bumbling student to Oliver’s knowledge feels like it elevates her adaptability in ways that aren’t exactly earned in real time, and considering the first heist is always the most fascinating one in these movies, on account of an imperfect formula from those thieves eliciting the necessary tension and suspense to their vulnerable designs, it feels like Rehmeier overlooks their importance in conveying the bigger picture, and it makes me wish that the film utilized more of its time to balance the crime side of the film with the aforementioned psychological side of its societal dissection, in turn gifting us a more thoroughly believable side of Caroline’s perceptive knowledge, rather than jolting ahead to convey that it happened somewhere along the line. Speaking of believability, my only other problem with the script pertained to some alarming conveniences to the couple’s documented crime spree in the broadcasted media, where they’re able to pull off so much while leaving the kind of obvious trail that should leave them captured within twenty-four hours. While I can certainly overlook these banks not taking the necessary initiative to have armed guards in vulnerably geographic areas, I can’t capably swallow police blockades who fail to check automobiles when these towns are swiftly locked down, especially considering there are witnesses everywhere to the automobile when Caroline and Oliver flee the scene. These characters leaving on foot would be more believable than their continued consistency to effectively evade them in automobile, and while I understand that the movie takes place in a particular place in time away from technological advancements, the lack of dye packs or placed tracers to the cash pile don’t make these situations feel realistic in the least, requiring a bit more suspension of disbelief than necessary in a movie this exceptionally made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
Carolina Caroline doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel for coupling crime capers, but it does effectively captivate an audience with its whirlwind love story and perceptive sociological scope, the likes of which lead to a slick and sexy heist drama that gets away nearly unblemished with our maintained attention in tow. Elevated by the excitingly enticing chemistry of Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner, as well as rhythmically riveting dialogue, the film goes the distance with its romance on the run narrative, in turn supplanting a familiar-but-frenetic joy ride with its foot on the gas throughout 100 minutes of intimate affection and gripping tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 8.2 or B+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By Adam Rehmeier Starring – Samara Weaving, Kyle Gallner, Kyra Sedgwick The Plot- Desperate to escape her small West Texas town, Caroline Daniels (Weaving) runs away with a charismatic con man, Oliver (Gallner), who takes her on a romantic crime spree through the American South. But as confidence games escalate into more elaborate heists, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,4,18,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9718"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9720,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9718\/revisions\/9720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}