Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There were two things I was thinking throughout this movie. "Poor Joe" and " Why are Chris and Ted such dicks?". The first story is about Chris, a privileged boy with a loving father who want to spend time with him. When they go hiking, he pushes his little brother onto the rocks for no reason. They get lost, then find their way home.The second story is about Joe, a kind, yet depressed kid. He is unfairly accused of stealing gum at the store. He seems to have no adults in his life that he can trust other than the complete stranger who he goes home with. The man is supposed to be nice, but taking a little kid home with you is a felony. At school, Joe has a one-sided conflict with his "best friend" Ted. Ted seems to verbally and physically bully Joe by pinching him in his private parts. Joe fights back after he is provoked. They say it is just a game, but Joe clearly doesn't like it and Ted doesn't care. Ted continues to do it and gets Joe in trouble twice. For some reason Joe is blamed for this by the school and by Ted's mother. Ted doesn't even care that his "best friend" lost his brother or that his father left.The final story is about Ted. His main conflict is that he and Joe aren't friends anymore and he thinks he is the victim. He can't understand how physically bullying someone, getting him in trouble twice, blaming him, calling him a very hurtful nickname, and not being there when he is depressed might end a friendship. I know these are ten year old boys and being mean is their way of communicating, but how are we supposed to believe that these boys are friends. Ted starts hanging out with Chris as his rebound friend, who is a jerk to Joe for some reason. He wasn't even part of the conflict. The three "friends" are brought together when they decide to hunt a mountain lion. They fight over the gun and Joe gets shot. Only then does Ted actually seem to care about Joe. At the end of the movie they become friends again, though it is unclear why. Ted never apologizes to Joe, even for nearly killing him.The moral of this story, some friendships can be very harmful. PLEASE COMMENT BELOW. I WANT FEEDBACK. I don't think I fully interpreted this movie correctly. If I did, it deserves a much lower rating. What do you think?

Yosemite (2015) is a solid coming of age film that goes too far off track. I was really enjoying Yosemite for the first 30 minutes or so. After a while, the film became misguided and lost my interest. The cinematography is nice, and I loved the retro aspect felt throughout. The acting is great. James Franco is good, but he only shows up for the first 20 minutes and then vanishes. But at times, the directing seems vague. Some scenes feel out of place, and the story becomes nebulous. The film is obviously inspired by "Stand By Me", but it lacks the charm and humour. 'Yosemite' is certainly not a bad film. However, it does gradually lose focus,and in the process, loses the audience's interest.

Let me start by saying, I'm glad I didn't pay to see this movie. I found it to watch online and given the rating another website had given it, I went ahead for it thinking that it couldn't be awful. And it wasn't awful - just wasn't good either. Yosemite has effectively blurred the lines of it's acts, there's no distinction between the first, second and third. The direction of the film is awful, to say the least. Instead of having interlacing story lines between three different boys, it blurs them and leaves you asking whose who. The film is supposedly about three boys, unfolding Palo Alto as a mountain lion is apparently loose. The mountain lion isn't even mentioned till three-quarters the way through the movie, and only shows up briefly for one scene, only a body even.Yosemite tries to be an artistic film, when it falls flat in places it shouldn't.

Set in 1985 in the city of Palo Alto, California,this movie written and directed by Gabrielle Demeesterre, is based on 2 short stories from James Franco's 2013 book "A California Childhood". Upon reading the premise of the film, I wondered if it it would compare in any way to Rob Reiner's 1986 classic "Stand By Me",but it really doesn't compare, like very few, if any movies could.The story revolves around the coming-of-age adventures of 3 fifth graders Chris (Everett Meckler), Joe (Alec Mansky), and Ted (Calum John), who are all newcomers to the silver screen. The boys are trying to cope with friendships, broken families, the death of loved ones, missing family pets, as well as an encroachment on Palo Alto by mountain lions, who are feeling the pinch of expanding cities into their natural habitats and thus have been entering neighborhoods looking for water and food.Although this indie maintains a good sense of foreboding throughout, it never seems to actualize enough dramatic tension to be engrossing. Also, there are some plot elements that remain too ambiguous, such as the actual intentions of the young man Henry (Henry Hopper), who rather creepily befriends Joe and invites him to his house to read comic books.All in all, I thought this movie has some good moments, but there weren't enough of them to cohere into an absorbing and enjoyable film.