Tag Archives: indie

(A) Spare Room

Spare Room, (or “A Spare Room” as it’s listed on the opening card but not anywhere else), is an Independant movie from 2018, and despite it somewhat flying under the radar a little it’s been very much on my “Virginia Madsen films I want to watch” list since i started this whole thing. Not really sure why it’s on my “last of my Virginia Madsen films to watch” list as I bring this whole Filmography to a close, but… It is.

Spare Room is an intimate tale of two people struggling to get by in today’s world. It’s sort of two stories in one.

The first story is one of a mysterious veteran, David (Martin Sensmeier) who is suffering from flashbacks and a fair amount of guilt after his time in Afghanistan. He’s become a loner and a drifter, not really knowing what to do with life after the Iraq war.

The second story is one of Lillian (Skylar Samuels), she’s living in small town America and not having a great time of it all. Both her Mother and Husband have recently passed away and she’s been left to care for her brother, Arrow (Cole Sibus). Her Husband was also in the war but thanks to disobeying an order which ultimately ended his life Lillian is unable to claim any compensation which has left her struggling to pay the bills.

David ends up in Lillian’s town, they briefly meet at the diner she works at. She’s recently advertised her “Spare Room” out for rent, David needs a place to stay and so opportunity has its way and he moves in with her.

The story holds no real surprises, it’s pretty by the book – It seems silly to say “I won’t spoil it” when most of the movie is so predictable, but, I’ll refrain from going into the details all the same.
Virginia Madsen plays Nat (don’t call her Natalie), the owner of a local bar where David gets work shortly after arriving in town. She gives him a job despite not advertising one, him being unshowered and having no place to live.

Because of this it’s obvious she’s got a soft spot for Military Men, but we never get anymore of her back story. From what she says and how she is I half expected some kind of monologue from her about losing her husband in a nonsense war and struggling to get by on her own, one day at a time.

But, that never came. I guess the film isn’t that predictable after all…

She does play a good character though, one that I don’t think I can recall seeing her play before. Nat reminded me of a Top Dog kind of character in a Women’s Prison. Think Orange is The New Black or Wentworth. It’s that kind of no nonsense, hard working weary soul she’s got. In Nat, we see Virginia Madsen bringing her hallmark authenticity to a small town figure, much as she’s done before but with a slightly harder edge. It’s a character that feels lived-in, even if her story isn’t fully explored – You just get to make your own up like I did.
It’s obviously a low budget film, but it’s actually exceptionally well made. There are some beautiful shots in it, but…

Spare Room is another film where Virginia Madsen, and the rest of the cast, shine – But are ultimately let down by the whole. It’s not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it could have been more. I don’t know what stops it being better, maybe it’s the pacing. Maybe it’s the fact we’ve seen this kind of movie before.

I’d say it’s worth a watch, overall – Don’t expect anything special and you’ll be OK – The performances here are spot on. If you enjoy watching talented people doing what they do best then you’ll get that out of it at least.

Also, a weird shout out to the soundtrack as well. It’s really, really good. More than once I loaded up Shazam to find out the name of a song so I could give it a listen later on and perhaps find more from the band, but it couldn’t help me. Which I thought was very odd, but after trawling through the end credits and looking it up on Google it seems as though a lot of it was done for the film.
Billy Bob Thornton’s band, The Boxmasters, contribute to the soundtrack as does Vince Mira (who also plays “Vince the singer”) and also Natasha Bedingfield but if like me you end up wanting to hear more, then you’ll have to go down your own rabbit hole to find it.

It’s a hard film to recommend you go out and find for the story. You’ve seen it before, you’ll see it again. But, if you’re a fan of Virginia Madsen, or just want to show some kind of support to the people that made it, it’s worth tracking it down. It’s only real sin is that it doesn’t offer us anything new.

Availability:

Not that hard to find on Region 1 DVD, but it’s not exactly easy either. A little patience and you should find it eventually.

Gallery:

Spare Room - Production Stills 5 images

Trailer:

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Crazy Kind of Love

Crazy Kind of Love is another small indie film entry from Virginia Madsen. The film is from 2013, it’s based on the novel Angel Angel by author April Stevens which was first published in 1995. Its budget is definitely low, but it’s another one I thoroughly enjoyed. Once I’d switched my brain off anyway.

Augusta (Virginia Madsen) is a Mother of two young adults, she’s having a rough time of it. She found out her husband and the Father of her two kids was having an affair, he ultimately leaves the family behind and it breaks her.

She has a full nervous breakdown and spends her time in her bedroom generally just trying to find the will to carry on. Her youngest son, Henry (Graham Rogers) lives at home and hates seeing his Mum like this and so sets about doing what he can to help. Not that he’s in much of a fit way to do this, he’s a massive pot head and has his own problems to deal with.
Henry meets a girl himself along the way, Bette (Amanda Crew). She’s, well, an interesting character – Who I do like – But, if this wasn’t a movie, I’d be questioning a lot of her actions.

Bette ends up pretty much inviting herself to live with Henry and his Mum, eventually Henry convinces his older brother Matthew (Zach Gilford) to come home to help get Augusta out of the funk she’s found herself in.
It’s Henry’s drug dealer, Jeff (Sam Trammell) plays a huge part in getting the family to heal, yeah – it’s a quirky bunch of characters for sure. Henry isn’t your typical badass kind of drug dealer, he’s the enlightened hippy kind.

I mentioned earlier that you had to switch your brain off for it, and you do. It’s very easy to pick holes in if you want to be cruel, but the heart is in the right place. There’s a lot of stuff that just wouldn’t happen in real life, and that’s OK – This is a movie and it’s allowed to happen like that.

I don’t know if I’d call Virginia Madsen’s role in this one a supporting one or not. She’s definitely one of the main characters but at the same time we don’t see a lot of her in comparison. It is a fine performance though, she plays the part well. Sadness exudes out of her when it should and as the film goes on and she starts to come round a bit you can see the spark return to her.

It’s a fine example of the kind of work she can do when she’s given the chance, the kind of performance you wish more people were made aware of.

It’d be easy to pick this one apart but overall I think I’d be happy to recommend watching it. It’s an indie flick, it has some great performances by some talented people and provided you don’t go deep on it, it makes for a great easy watching movie.

Availability:
Good on Region 1 DVD and streaming on Amazon Prime

Trailer:

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Burn Your Maps

Burn Your Maps is a film that I enjoyed far more than I thought I was going to do. It’s another supporting role in an indie for our Virginia Madsen, but it’s a good one, and a damn good movie to boot. It’s a film from 2016, written and directed by Jordan Roberts and based on a short story of the same name by Robyn Joy Leff.

Wes (Jacob Tremblay) is a 9 year old boy with a bit of a problem. You see he’s really a Mongolian Farmer who has been born in the wrong place.

Or, so he tells his parents at least.

Wes’s parents, Alise (Vera Farmiga) and Connor (Marton Csokas) are already struggling in their relationship, they’ve recently lost an infant daughter and their son’s behaviour is putting an even bigger strain on their marriage and nobody is happy.

Wes has been wearing his Mongolian Nomad Halloween costume for a month straight which is driving Connor round the bend with anger, not helped by Alise’s refusal to force him to take it off.

In a bid to escape the pressure of it all Alise makes the decision to allow her son to be who he wants and the two take off on an adventure to Mongolia to see, well, just to see. She takes along one of her Mongolian students, Ismail (Suraj Sharma) to help them navigate the desolate country.

I won’t say much more. This is a film that deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. Sure, it’s a bit janky in places and clumsy in others, but for me at least, the idea of it outweighs all of that. I love movies that are about “people” and the things that can and do affect their lives. Especially when they have adventures like this. They might not be “real” but they can be heartwarming and uplifting.Virginia Madsen isn’t in the film much. She plays a Nun, Victoria, that they meet along the way. She imparts some wisdom and then she’s on her way again. Short, sweet but memorable. It’s little roles like this that she takes that I think remind us, almost of what could have been with her career. She just rocks up, does her thing and it stays with you. I’m glad she gets to do this, I’m sure most people would want more but doing this is better than nothing.
Recommend you track this one down and give it a watch. It’s something different and a film worthy of your time.