New Release Review - Wild Girl Waltz

Comedy following the exploits of a pair of pill-popping girls.
  
Directed by: Mark Lewis
Starring: Christina Shipp, Samantha Steinmetz, Jared Stern

'Wild Girl Waltz' is a microscopic glance into the life of Angie (Shipp), Tara (Steinmetz), and Tara's boy friend, Brian (Stern). On this day, the two girls find themselves with nothing to do and, out of boredom, Tara decides the two should use the pills she got from a co-worker. Not knowing what the pills are or what they will do, she lets Angie decide who takes which one before Brian gets home. By the time Brian does return home from an awkward and really pointless encounter, the two girls have already begun their individual trips.

Knowing this film is trying to be like the endearing independent cult classics that so many us love, I must say they missed the mark here. The reason those other films have become what they are now is because they have heart in the script, characters played by good actors, and they knew the story they wanted to tell and how they wanted to tell it. 'Wild Girl Waltz' has almost none of these things. The script almost seems non-existent because of the randomness of events that are slopped together around these characters that are flat and feel forced through most of the film. The only times that they feel real are at the height of their high when their spontaneity is briefly a clever disguise for poor acting. Ultimately, though, despite the talents of the actors in this film, I don't see them winning a big audience over with such an incomplete story.

There are things that happen to characters - like a random meet up in the woods, an awkward conversation with a bartender, and a lady thief, for example - that really drag the film down for no reason; these events have no point and are never fully resolved. After the credits started rolling, I found myself asking a long line of questions about why they were in the film at all, and because even if they were in there solely for character development, they are still pointless and still fail to help the film in anyway, save for an attempt to keep the viewer on their toes.

Honestly, I wouldn't doubt it if the idea to make the film was because the filmmakers were bored one afternoon and were talking about how funny it would be to watch two girls get high while a guy has to deal with them on their trip. And the answer is it isn't all that funny, unless you are laughing at how awkward the situations on screen are. Maybe I am being harsh, but I guess I just don't understand the point of showing a guy meeting a man chopping a log (which they show for well over a minute without dialog, in multiple angles) over some money to have them set up a payment plan that is never discussed again. It was pointless and, sadly, if you did take out all of the scenes like this, the film would function much better as a short than a feature.

2/10

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Andy Comer