Malibu Crush Review
Malibu Crush does exactly that to the brief flashes of quality cinema mixed in amongst its otherwise chaotic energy.
Two best friends from Pasadena, Michael (James Pratt) and Duey (Billy White), pretend to be highly acclaimed film school students in order to declare their love for an ex-girlfriend living in Sydney, Australia.
Look I won’t lie; Malibu Crush was a struggle to get through. 90% of that is the sheer variability in the piece. It oscillates between watchable low budget indie fare, and unwatchable slapstick comedy.
Chaotic changes in colour grading, film quality, and tonality make this feel completely disjointed; like watching six movies in one, all without a cohesive plot or mesh to one another. The starting scenes in LA are particularly tough to slog through, with each camera angle in the scene graded in entirely different ways, harsh sunlight blaring into the face of some of the actors blowing the white balance out, and a mish mash of quality performers that means you have some scenes where actors feel like they’ve walked in off the street and happened into a role in a feature film.
I say chaotic changes because the film isn’t always like that. There are some really lovely moments too, and some gorgeous camerawork; particularly in the later scenes. Romantic scenes between Michael and Emma along the beaches of Sydney, or before Michael is deported, are beautifully shot, as is a remarkably silly commercial with a robot and a fake Bradley Cooper. The problem with Malibu Crush is that these moments are all too few, and even when they appear, they are crammed into a story that is too ill focussed and ambitious for the limitations of the piece.
The plot of the film is problematic. There’s a germ of a good idea here, but for what reason the film is occasionally couched in a Bill & Ted - esque ethos I have no idea. The camera work and editing isn’t up to scratch to maintain the level of humor that the filmmakers are trying to bring to the piece, and while some of the dialogue isn’t bad, it’s nullified by sound design that mutes scenes of outrage, cuts that fall too slow for a true zinger, and camera work that occasionally jumps and jitters.
What can be said for this film is that, from an acting perspective, James Pratt is very good. Bella Valentini, too, is impressive. Their scenes together ring with an authenticity that isn’t present amongst the rest of the cast, and while the directorial effort could have benefitted from a stronger, more restrained hand, the ability to wring real emotion from the audience in these romance scenes when everything around the rest of the movie is causing issue should be commended.
Ultimately, it’s tough to recommend Malibu Crush, but it isn’t tough to recommend Pratt and Valentini as ones to keep an eye on.
