Iowa (2006)
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Matt Farnsworth, Michael T. Weiss, Rosanna Arquette
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
This is just stylistic plagiarism, without any sense of self.
A mish-mash of familiar cinematic would-be jolts and shocks that don't convince for a more than a moment or two.
Cut with distractions: tweaky visuals, borrowed touches and cartoonish characters.
Here's a strange, moody movie about "Iowa" that's never going to make to a Chamber of Commerce dinner.
Farnsworth's frenetic, often hysterical first feature tries desperately to find a style, or styles, to call its own, but there's never a moment that doesn't feel as if it's been chewed up and spit out a dozen times before.
As director, Farnsworth lets tricky visuals run roughshod over dramatic unity, while as a performer, his lack of screen presence makes him seem sullen and uninterested instead of darkly charismatic.
The most unflinching look yet at the meth pandemic that is sweeping across the Midwest as family values are plowed under by modern corporate agri-business.
According to this first-time feature filmmaker, the entire Hawkeye State is a hotbed of crime, corruption and clandestine chemistry, with home-cooked crystal methamphetamine replacing pot roast and Mom's apple pie.
There's not much story but there are plenty of colorful, almost David Lynchian drug freakouts.
A sour vanity project: trash posing as a socially relevant 'cautionary tale.'
Matt Farnsworth's low-budget cautionary tale takes a 'drugs are evil' premise and pushes it to the extreme.
Iowa is so stupendously slipshod that even mentioning the classics it vainly attempts to emulate would be to give it too much credit by association.
Farnsworth brings a smidgen of scary energy to the social hellfire, and his newbie cast often out-act the pros.


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