Truly Dreadful Film

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I found this movie on Netflix streaming movies. I had recently re-watched 'Juno' and wanted to see a few other roles Ellen Page had before she became famous. The title comes from an early scene where some 'SPARK' members are demonstrating mouth-to-mouth one evening in the streets of Berlin. There also is a much later scene where it was used to try to save someone. But on a more symbolic level it could apply to what the members of the SPARK cult provide for each other, for survival.Ellen Page is London high-schooler Sherry . She just doesn't seem to identify with the rigid life and decides to just go away, joining up with the others in SPARK, headed eventually to Portugal in the SPARK bus. Natasha Wightman plays Sherry's mother, Rose , soon hitting the road to look for Sherry, and quite unexpectedly finds her.Eric Thal is the defacto leader of SPARK, and as is the case with cults, he makes the rules and decides what the punishment is if someone breaks them. But his method is even more insidious, he befriends the prettiest, has sex with them, then shuns them. As Sherry finds out the hard (no pun intended) way. As they eventually stand up to him, explaining he 'sucks the souls out of people.'I suppose the main thrust of the story is the overused 'coming of age' experience, this for Sherry. She finally wises up and breaks free, but in a twist her mother decides staying with SPARK is what she really wants out of life.It is not an easy movie to watch, mainly because you know there are street people like that all over. But it is a good watch for Ellen Page, she is amazingly good.

Through the years, I've become a huge fan of Ellen Page and I must admit that this was the sole reason I wanted to see this film. But ultimately, this film was a real bummer.Page's acting is superb of course, along with some other actors. But throughout this movie, each genuine tension build-up seems to accumulate in an anticlimax. The movie starts gripping, but then all of a sudden some highly implausible elements are added to the equation, resulting in disappointment and even irritation.For instance, when Sherry's mother finds her and takes her with her, all of a sudden *she's* the one who wants to stay, while Sherry wants to leave. The way in which Sherry's mother turns into an avid fan just overnight is some kind of 15-year-old story-writing that is a mere insult to the viewer. The scene where Sherry and here mother suddenly start some kind of 'streetdance' along the road is not some kind of comic relief, neither does it have some kind of strange 'symbolism', it's just plain silly.Moreover, plot elements are just dipped into this movie as if it were a great pan of soup. The one minute, Nancy is alive and well, the other minute, she's dead in the pit without any further explanation. Harry, who has become more and more sadistic and manipulative, just stares blankly at Sherry and Mad Ax as they leave with the van, giving him more than enough time to intervene. It seems that the only person with consistency in her character is Sherry. However, it must be said that some genuine tension is present, and the whole concept of a semi-cult leader intimidating his followers is convincing.This movie is the equivalent of trying to sleep while your neighbors are fighting. Every time when the noise fades and you *just* feel comfortable enough to go back to sleep, the noise suddenly comes back.If it weren't for the good acting (the lead actors definitely 'rescued' this film) and the great music, I'd say that this movie is an all-out slap in the face for anybody who expects a decent indie-movie.

What can I say about this? Nothing about it is inherently bad (well okay, most of the acting is, but aside from that very obvious fact); it's mostly just a very plodding even boring film of often silly, predictable nothingness. You have your standard stereotypes everywhere, but none of the characters are in any way likable, which in itself doesn't necessarily cause me a problem and maybe this is just the type of film where no one needs to be liked, but either way. It even fails to explore the nature of a cult more deeply (or even at all), which was a wasted opportunity.One last thing, I've seen a few mentions of this being realistic. My a**e is it realistic! People seem to think that if a film's made on a low budget with no special effects and bad acting that it's realistic. Please stop mistaking hard to watch with realism.

After two years of trying to find the movie, I finally purchased it for 18.99 on ebay. Right when I received the package, I put it in my DVD player. It was worth the wait.First to note, the movie is low budget and you can tell from the poor lighting. But, it kind of added to this film. The film was very dark and gritty as it portrayed a cult that started as a party and ended as manipulation. I did notice quite a few plot holes such as how did Sherry's mother find Sherry when Sherry was over a thousand miles away. But other than that I applaud Alison Murray's efforts in this film as we laughed and cried with the lead character played by the always fantastic, Ellen Page.It was after Ellen's performance in Hard Candy that made me want to follow her and it is quite obvious that she'll have a fantastic career ahead of her.There is so much to say about this film. I loved the score and thought it was perfect for the film. It was very well placed and enjoyable. I loved how the actors would kind of dance to strange situations such as Sherry's mom would try to get Sherry in her car and Sherry wanted to get away from her. It was almost liked they did a tango. It was beautiful to me. What I also enjoyed about the movie was it was very unpredictable. Early in a movie you see a kid get nonchalantly thrown into a dumpster to get some food and he ends up hitting his head against a sharp object. There was no music to narrate the situation for you so it kept me off guard. I don't know what it is about indy films but they always appeal to me. I love the experimentation of the film.So all in all, you'll probably not be able to find this movie for rent and will most likely have to take the chance and purchase the film. It was very hard to find and ebay or Amazon is the only way you'll be able to find it. This movie reminded me a little of Firecracker, House of Sand and Fog, and 11:14. Mouth to Mouth is bizarre and is really "out there" so you need to watch it with an open mind.P.S: Congraduations to Ms. Page for her Oscar nomination and I'm sure she won't let the instant fame get to her head and she'll continue to pick original and great scripts.