Northfork

Rating:
Summary: What the hell is this?
Review: OK folks, got some time to kill and brain cells to fry? Try watching Northfork and see if it makes any sense. Imagine surrealist painter Salvador Dali behind a movie camera. That explains this film best.

As far as I could see a town had to be evacuated or it would be flooded with the building of a dam (???) Nick Nolte is a preacher who shoots down an angel, thinking it was a duck. The angel is now a sick young boy that is constantly sick and cannot be adopted.

The boy dreams a lot and he keeps going to this house where four angels live. They are looking for 'the missing one'. One angel is Daryl Hannah, who is bald but wears a Three Stooges Moe wig. The other is Gilbert from 'Revenge of the Nerds', he is the studious type who knows something about everything. Oh yeah, he has wooden hands. There's this real eccentric angel who is not the most macho guy you've ever seen, and a cowboy angel who has no lines. There is also a stick-dog wandering around outside. WHat the heck is a 'stick-dog' you ask? Watch and learn my friends.

Another plot is the government agents trying to move people. The citizens are quite the characters indeed. One guy has two wives and turned his house into a boat, another nailed his feet to the porch and is a bit trigger happy, and we got two young lovers with a nice car.

Somewhere in the middle of all this is a wife and mother who is dead. The boy angel visits her grave, then she's buried in a canyon. But the first scene in the movie is a floating coffin in a river.

Either you have to be really poetic or really stoned to make any sense of this. It left me with a headache.

Rating:
Summary: DON'T BUY. PLEASE DON'T EVEN RENT. TRY BORROWING. MAYBE.
Review: The first clue that I should have turned off this movie: two of the characters in this film were played by actors appearing in "A Walk to Remember." However, I (regretfully) put aside my intuition and allowed myself to struggle through the awkward puns and transparent acting all for the sake of the haunting beauty of the film. Looking back, I think I would have enjoyed the movie much more had the mute button been on.

What else, you ask, could bring a rational human being to sit for 102 minutes in front of this pretentious picture? Well, "what else" was the question I was asking myself up until the very end. I figured that the movie must redeem itself in the last few frames. Not so. In fact, I feel cheated out of story line, character development, emotional depth, truly thoughtful insight (not just gross ambiguity which some might mistake for deeper meaning), and a feeling of purpose to the film. Worst film experience of the year, and I see a lot of flicks.

Rating:
Summary: Really Liked It, I Think
Review: When I sat down to watch this movie I didn't really know what to expect; but this wasn't it. I rented the movie and watched it the first night. By the end of the week I had to see it again. The images and ideas kept rolling around in my head. The second viewing was better than the first.

Though I'm sure a LOT of people will disagree, I liked the pace and the way they cut back and forth between dreams and "reality". If they had had a bigger budget (the whole movie was shot in 24 days) maybe they could have shot more scenes and then edited a slightly more coherent final package. That said, I liked it enough that I'm waiting for some of the "1 star" folks to put their copies up for sale, cheap.

Rating:
Summary: a masterpiece in every sense of the word
Review: It pains me to come on here and read these amateurish reviews that blast fine art due to one's inability to comprehend something. If you're into Hollywood and mainstream films that dumb you down than this isn't for you. This film is a pure work of art to the highest degree. The film is highly symbolic and deals with death and how we must change and be able to adapt in our every day lives. I won't get into plot specifics, but if you do like the film and are struggling with the plot, then check out the featurette and or director commentary. Once you're on track, its not really that difficult to follow. Apart from the meaning of the film, its gorgeously shot and the cinematography is truly inspiring. This film is truly a gem and the Polish brothers (and family) have made a touching masterpiece and for that I thank them.

Rating:
Summary: Great film!
Review: My husband and I both enjoyed this film very much. Wonderful acting and gorgeous imagery. It does leave many unanswered questions even for the careful viewer. Does this make it a bad film? We didn't think so.

Perhaps Nick Nolte sums it up best at the end of the film: as a child of God, we don't have to understand death. It is only necessary to view it with compassion.

Thank you, Polish Brothers, for your vision and your gift!

Rating:
Summary: NORTHFORK DVD
Review: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY OF TIME WITH THIS FILM..IT WAS ONE OF THE WORST I'VE SEEN IN A LONG TIME...THANK YOU

Rating:
Summary: crap
Review: This was most certainly one of the worst movies I have ever forced myself to endure. Sadly, the solitary reason for finishing the movie was to see if it came together. Pity...it sure as hell didn't.

For starters- I have problems with people who get grandiose LSD induced visions of plots, schemes, etc. and feel like they all need to be shared with everyone. NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! This movie was I'm sure incredible if you are inside the head of Michael Polish. I for one would never want to be in his head after watching this! Now don't get me wrong, I love symbolism, complex stories, and unorthodox methodology. However, in movies that portray these aspects well, the writer will give you at least one thing that everyone can latch onto or understand so that you may complete this rest of the story with your newly understood meaning. That's the key: something to grasp so that the rest of the story can be developed and make at least a little since. In Northfork, there was nothing to grasp. Nothing. Not only did it not make sense, but without anything to stand out as a basis of it's meaning, it meant absolutely nothing to me. I could make no interpretation of what the director was trying to get across. I was very saddened by this movie because I thought it could be saved with some type of clue or reason for it's being somewhere in the film. Sadly, this was not to be found. I could've shut it off 45 minutes in advance and saved a little more time. However, I'm writing this review so that you can save money and the 102 minutes it lasts. Hopefully, you will read this and not see this movie. What a disappointment...

Rating:
Summary: an acquired taste
Review: ***1/2 Like the Polish Brothers' previous films ("Twin Falls Idaho" and "Jackpot"), "Northfork" divides audiences even as it baffles and bewilders them. Many will surely find this film to be slow moving, arty, pretentious and boring, while others will be intrigued by its originality and visionary quality. Either way you slice it, however, "Northfork" is an acquired taste.

It's 1955 and Northfork, a small town on the plains of Montana, is about to be wiped off the face of the earth by a gigantic flood. Only this time the destruction won't be the result of the angry hand of Providence but rather of a dam building project developed and conceived by the government in the name of "progress." Out of this simple premise, Mark and Michael Polish have crafted an elegy to the past, a tone poem that reflects the deep sadness that comes with change, abandonment and loss. To achieve their effect, the writers have incorporated large doses of Magic Realism (with heavy religious and Biblical overtones) into their narrative. While we observe the harsh realities of people being driven from their homesteads, we are also introduced to a quartet of angels who are searching for one of their number who went missing a number of years earlier. Legend has it that the town of Northfork was originally looked out for by a group of guardian angels and it is from this rather twisted and bent angle that the Polish Brothers have chosen to approach their subject.

"Northfork" is far more about mood, imagery and tone than it is about plot and character development. In fact, the characters themselves - the angels, a caring priest, a dying boy, and a father and son whose job it is to make sure no people are left behind when the land is inundated - are as subdued in tone as the film is as a whole. None of the characters ever speaks above a whisper and each comes across as moody, introspective and stolid. It is in the visuals and in the unhurried, subtle pacing of the narrative that the film achieves its power. The dry barren plains, the weather beaten houses, the violated cemeteries, and the isolated figures of men and buildings placed in stark relief against an imposing horizon - these are the images that seep inexorably into the viewer's subconscious and which make the film a stunning study in melancholy. Let it be noted, however, that there is also a modicum of hope and optimism in the story to help mitigate the sadness.

A number of big name stars have leant their talents to the project, including Nick Nolte, James Woods and Daryl Hannah. Woods, with his straight-faced, deadpan delivery, provides some much needed touches of black humor throughout the otherwise deadly serious work.

"Northfork" definitely requires that you be in a certain mood to appreciate and enjoy it. Hopefully, you'll hit it at just the right moment.

Rating:
Summary: Trying way too hard
Review: Sorry Polish bros. The Coens already exist and they're a lot more talented. The reviewer from Texas who said this was boring is unfortunately telling the truth. This movie is one of those films that is just trying so hard to be quirky, strange, interesting, avant garde, whatever the hell you want to call it that it ends up being the most pretentious piece of crap I've seen in recent and long term memory. What a waste of this cast. The angel sequences with Daryl Hannah and Anthony Edwards after a few scenes were just painfully awful to watch. The pace was unecessarily slow and this may have made a good short film on HBO or a similar cable channel. As beautiful as the cinematography is of the surrounding countryside it just can't hold up this film which has as much resonance and interest as a cloud of dust. I HATED this movie. I would rather have to continuously watch The Fast and the Furious clockwork orange style that even glance at this gold plated turd again. Sorry, that was an insult to good hard working turd.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty much incomprehensible
Review: Over NORTHFORK's 103-minute run time, certainties are few and far between.

1. A dam has been built that will flood the town of Northfork; 2. Three 2-man teams dressed in black are sent out by the state to evacuate the few residents that have refused to leave the inundation area; 3. Each team member gets 1.5 acres of lakeside property if the team's evacuation quota is met; 4. A dying orphan, Irwin (Duel Farnes), is in the care of a priest (Nick Nolte); 5. One of the evacuation teams, Walter (James Woods) and son Willis (Mark Polish), must disinter the coffin of Walter's wife and move it to higher ground; 6. Four angels inhabit a deserted house waiting for a lost angel to appear.

Filmed in Montana, there are some beautifully photographed images in muted tones that the viewer may find entrancing. Beyond that, however, the pervasive and heavily applied symbolism make the overall storyline virtually incoherent. Year 2001's MULHOLLAND DRIVE was positively lucid in comparison.

Filmmakers Michael and Mark Polish obviously had a vision to share. Too bad it wasn't with the viewer that's expected to pay good money to see it. (Gee, what a concept!)