TNL Movie Club - 11:14

[Regus]

The movie involves several interconnected stories that converge at 11:14 p.m. The connections between the events are not apparent at first, but are gradually revealed by a series of progressively receding flashbacks:

How is it possible that 11:14 went virtually unreleased in theaters? After modest film-festival exposure, it played briefly in San Francisco in August 2005 (over two years after it was completed), but that's a cruel twist of fate for such a cleverly twisted movie about cruel twists of fate. Destined for sleeper status on DVD (and given a slightly higher profile by Hilary Swank's subsequent Oscar-winning performance in Million Dollar Baby), the audacious debut of writer-director Greg Marcks boasts a fantastic cast in a smartly constructed comedy/thriller, partly inspired by Blood Simple, in which a fatal traffic accident is examined and re-examined from multiple perspectives. The flashback structure involves all of the characters and events that lead up to the accident's deadly occurrence at 11:14 on an otherwise pleasant evening in Middleton, a typical suburb of Anytown, USA (filmed in the vicinity of Los Angeles). Marcks's screenplay attracted an impressive ensemble cast (costar Swank also signed on as an executive producer), and they're all given equal time as the intertwined plots are revealed. They include Rachael Leigh Cook (whose bad-girl behavior sets the chain of events in motion); Patrick Swayze and Barbara Hershey as her worried parents; Swank and Shawn Hatosy as would-be criminals with a dimwit plan; Henry Thomas as a drunk driver whose involvement is deeper than we realize; and Colin Hanks as one of three teenage vandals on a fast track to trouble. With falling corpses, graveyard sex, reckless gunplay, and a severed penis, it's all in good, grisly fun (apart from intricate plotting, Marcks has no lofty agenda up his sleeve), and there's ultimately not much point to its random misfortune, but 11:14 is clearly the work of a promising filmmaker, worthy of rediscovery on DVD. Bonus features include Marcks's intelligent commentary, a standard behind-the-scenes featurette, and a useful "character jump" feature allowing viewers to choose a plot trajectory whenever one character encounters another. --Jeff Shannon

This is one of those movies where multiple plots are happening simultaneously, within a small time frame, and we start with only small bits of information and slowly things start to fall into place. It's a fun little movie.

They've been playing this recently on one the starz channels.

[bbobb]

Ummmm, get rid of all those other movies Regus. You know, someone might want to do one of those later. Having a whole list like that is pretty bullshit.

[Rumpy]

Nice, I'm a fan of these types of movies.

[Gooch]

The concept has become cliche, but I'll check this out. I understand this was a straight-to-DVD release.

[bbobb]

Watched it last night. An interesting movie. The plot was well put together, and it was fun, but at the same time it feels like I've seen it before. The whole intricate plot of flashbacks with bunches of characters tying together is getting a bit overdone at this point.

[Scourge]

I liked this movie quite a bit. It's a small film (maybe even independant, I don't know) but I think it's well done. Henry Thomas is one of my favorite actors too.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

BB just sent an email stating this has shipped. Will watch tonight. They are pissing me off with the queue though, I added the last Movie Club movie when it was announced and pushed it to the top of the line. 30 movies later and they still haven't sent it. Bastards.

[Schlep]

Downloading it off of Vongo now. I'll try to get to it tonight.

[Rumpy]

Netflix just let me into their on demand service, it's dope.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Nice film. I loved Swayzes protective yet oblivious character. Rachel Cooks breasts caught me off guard. I've seen her in a few movies, yet never noticed how endowed she was. Maybe it was all bra. She played the conniving slut quite well. Of course it could be argued that it doesn't take much acting to portray what all women essentially are.
For being a film most people haven't heard of, I was really surprised at how many "name" actors were in it.
I'm sure I would have never watched this had it not been part of the club, so yay! TNL.