Dreadfully Boring

An absolute waste of money

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Viewed on DVD. Cinematography/lighting = eight (8) stars; other major production values = eight (8) stars; subtitles/credits = ten (10) stars. Director Dave Boyle's tale of four-legged contraband and deadly serial identity theft is a classic edge-of-your-seat thriller. Packed with red-herring subplots and many moving parts, it really requires multiple viewings to understand all that occurs and why as well as to tie up a multitude of what seem to be (but really are not) loose ends. There is no happy ending. It also lacks (thankfully!) the usual Pro Forma car chases up and down the very hilly streets of San Francisco. Acting/direction is very good with bilingual leading actress Ayako Fujitani delivering a scene-stealing, radiant, and intelligent performance (it's a pure pleasure to see her in action!). Cinematography (wide screen, color), scene lighting, and other productions values (such as choice of exterior/interior locations and set decoration) are all excellent. Score is a bit uneven with themes that range from creative use of one or a few instruments to an overriding (and irritating) scrapping-like buzz apparently meant to signal that danger lies ahead. Surround sound field is good when fully deployed. Subtitles (which can not be turned off) are excellent and almost mandatory due to the heavy use of Tokyo dialect/slang. Everyone and everything (even if only mentioned in the dialog) is given on-screen credit including the supplier of Kame (turtles). Since initial funding came from crowd sourcing, several hundred contributors are also listed. Highly recommended for multiple viewings! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

I really wanted to like it - so I did. A murder mystery with a worn premise. Strange combination of 60% Japanese with subtitles and 40% English. Liked that too. Main character, Ayako Fujitani, is very good and takes a mean close-up. Very cute.People keep disappearing and identities are always in question. Nothing new, but with the conflageration of characters it was hard to follow, especially since most of the characters were Japanese. The protagonist was developed, but the antagonist could have been a whole movie.The problem was that this could easily have been a six part mini-series. There were so many characters and sub-plots, all introduced and abandoned. Each of these could have been a one or two hour episode instead of just dropped. In the end - it just ended. Then I saw the credits. 'Gofundme'. Apparently they were moving along at a brisk pace and suddenly ran out of money. 'Well, I guess that's a wrap, folks.' As the lawman stands on a dock with no visible means of escape, but the bad guy gets away anyway. Wheredidhego? After more funding? I enjoyed it anyway, just wish it had been 'finished'.

"Man from Reno" is Indie Director's Dave Boyle's fifth feature, a neo-noir featuring two inter-connected stories, one in English and the other in Japanese. The story begins with small-town sheriff Paul Del Moral (expertly played by Pepe Serna), in fictional San Marco County, north of San Francisco. While driving one night in the fog, Del Moral runs into a man who turns out to be a Japanese national, later disappearing from the hospital, before the sheriff can interview him.Along with his daughter (who's also an officer in the sheriff's department) Del Moral attempts to learn the identity of the man who has disappeared. Del Moral's investigations eventually leads him to Aki Akahori (Ayako Fujitani), a mystery writer who's famous in Japan for her Inspector Takabe series. Aki has checked herself into the Majestic Hotel in San Francisco but is intentionally no longer checking in with her publicist who reports to the press back in Japan that she's a missing person.Meanwhile Aki falls for a handsome stranger staying at the hotel, Akira Suzuki (Kazuki Kitamura), who also ends up disappearing. There's a McGuffin involved here, a set of endangered turtles, whom a bunch of bad guys are trying to get their hands on.Sheri Linden writing in "The Hollywood Reporter" notes problems with the "Man from Reno" second act: "Beyond awkward shifts in tone and emphasis, the movie goes lax for a stretch in the midsection, bogged down in scene after scene of crime-solving revelations in the form of explanatory conversations." There are just too many characters and events that oversaturate the narrative, violating the cardinal rule of screen writing: "show don't tell." Nonetheless, "Man From Reno" is the type of film that one should watch twice. Since the bulk of the film is in Japanese, it's difficult following who is who and exactly what's happening in terms of the plot. The cinematography is by veteran Richard Wong who makes this low budget project appear as if it's a high budget studio film.The "Man From Reno" denouement strikes me having roots in neo-noir—particularly the 70s classic, "Chinatown." Both feature villains who "get away with it" but somehow "Reno's" ending is not as special or striking as "Chinatown." "Man From Reno" is a smart looking feature which features interesting characters and plot shifts, that perhaps needed a bit more thought, shaping and paring, particularly in the second act.

Sometimes, in order to see a good story that breaks the formula, you just have to go Indie, and these guys deserve support and they spend that extra once of energy to get it the way it should be, and not a Hollywood by number cliché film. Dave Boyle again proves he is the King of Indie film-making with a continuous run of great films. He has retained his quirky sense of humor and wrapped it into a mystery story that .. well had me guessing. I won't even suggest a spoiler here as it's worth looking up if it's coming to a theater near you, or checking it out on Netflix or whatever Service you have available to you. Props to Shiori Ideta for her stone cold delivery of my favourite line in the film, selections of credit music and a great cast that includes some fantastic Japanese actors and a script that kept me guessing. Well done to Dave and the team at Tiger. Looking forward to seeing more films in the future, you've won a fan in Australia and will continue my support for your future endeavors. Ivan Wheelwright Adelaide Australia