User Reviews

I've been going on a James Ransone movie spree ever since viewing "It Chapter Two". He is an incredible actor, and his range is phenomenal, but when watching the film I was uncertain what to expect. It turned out to be a very grounded and unique film, which I ended up enjoying to the highest extent. What I liked most about it was there was no real plot, nothing eventful ever happened, there wasn't that traditional downfall in the film where the character faces something so drastic to change everything by the very end and get a happy ending. (Which if I'm honest is so worn out these days, you're always awaiting that falling point in the film when things are going well, but that's a roller coaster for you.) It was instead very much like real life, bad things happen and we feel very much alone and or dissatisfied with the lives we are living. Not everyone may feel that way, but for those who do, we just do. I loved this concept, the direction it took us, and how the character felt human. A lot of times films push too much, they have agendas to meet and or are trying to preach some message, and while it's not terrible, it can get a little too overrun. And for a comedy I was expecting this to be messy, but it was nothing like that, we follow the lead character Lonnie (Ransone) as he is struggling with his life, he's not generally happy with things, he's been doing the same job pretty much his whole life, the relationship with a girl he is in love with is going no where, she's not ready for a serious relationship, but will come by for sex, and he wants more in their relationship, and what surprised me was they didn't really end up together, he comes to terms with the fact that she probably isn't the one by the end of the film, and usually films give characters happy endings and good romance, somehow they manage to get the girl, and so I was highly impressed with the way they decided to move the characters, how again, real it truly felt, we sometimes want things in life that can be bad for us, or that we'll never receive, no matter what it may be. I do recommend this to anyone who is in the mood for something a little different than they are used to watching, I was inspired by the message they did end up telling by the end. "One step at a time" (not the exact words) doing small things and doing things for people instead of yourself help give your life meaning. And by the end of the film Lonnie was doing just that.

So yeah I give it eight stars, It was a wonderful hidden gem of a movie.

The opening shot of this film is great. A guy comes out of a bar at night, shouts a drunken comment at a passerby, and nearly falls on his face lighting a cigarette. The camera tracks him as he stumbles into a crosswalk, picks up a "yield to pedestrian" sign, and lugs it back into the bar.

Before the credits roll, we know the guy's name is Lonnie. He's a thirty-something house painter, he plays video games, hangs out with his high school buddies still, and has a messy relationship with his newest girlfriend Monica. When the credits actually start (actually it's just a title card) we already know the whole story; the guy is a loser. Then director/writer/editor Frank V. Ross tells us the story again in loving detail.

Bloomin Mud Shuffle is a quirky little comedy, a non-rom com. The guy and girl are hardly shown together. Each spends more time with friends and family than with the prospective life partner, which is pretty much why their affair goes nowhere.

Shot on location in the Chicago suburb of Yorkville, Ross captures a modern slice of life: the angst of young white males neither smart enough, greedy enough, nor ambitious enough to fight their way into the vanishing middle class.

Lead actors James Ransone and Alexia Rasmussen are fine, but Alex Karpovsky steals the picture as Lonnie's buddy and boss Chuck. Chuck is one of those know-it-all types who has an opinion about everything but is almost as big a loser as Lonnie. His only edge is he's in a stable relationship.

Oh, yes, the gun. Early in the film there is a scene with Lonnie and more of his high school chums trapshooting. (All Lonnie does is pull the traps.) It's soon established that Lonnie owns a gun.

Jean-Luc Godard said, "All I need to make a movie is a girl and a gun." In a Godard film, Lonnie would have shot somebody before the fadeout. Frank Capra would have had Lonnie about to blow his brains out before the appearance of a deus ex machina like Henry Travers. Frank Ross handles the situation by having Lonnie, on the verge of despair, wander into a Catholic church and confess to Father Tony (played by Dave Pasquesi.) This is another great scene and it resolves the plot. Nobody gets shot. If only real life were like that.

This is Frank V. Ross' sixth feature film. He is a name to be watched. One thing is sure: he'll go a lot farther than Lonnie.