morrison-dylan-fan
With still having good memories of co-writer/ (along with Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson) director David Gordon Green's 2008 Comedy Pineapple Express,I was thrilled to discover that a family friend had recently gotten hold of Green's collaboration with Paul Rudd,which led to me grabbing my best suit,and getting ready to meet Prince Avalanche.The plot:Asked by his girlfriend to get her brother a job,Alvin arranges for Lance to work with him during the summer time repairing traffic lines of a quiet country road.Bored to death of being stuck in the middle of nowhere,Lance begins to make plans to take the weekend off,and visit a near-by city.As Lance sets off for the big city,Alvin begins to question everything which he has left behind.View on the film:Backed by a haunting score from David Wingo and the excellent Post- Rock band Explosions In The Sky,director David Gordon Green and cinematographer Tim Orr strip the film to a docu-drama rawness,as Green and Orr avoid giving the title any elegance,by using rough tracking shots to firmly place the viewer in the wilderness.Along with the tough tracking shots,Green & Orr also use short,brittle shots to display the near- nuclear bomb effect its rural Texas location suffered in the Bastrop County Complex fire.Whilst Green does well at giving the movie a striking appearance,Green's and Gunnarsson's adaptation of Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson's film Either Way disappointingly fail to explore the depths of Alvin and Lance's friendship,which leads to the characters and the title feeling extremely stilted and dry.Going against his traditional comedic roles,Paul Rudd gives a very good performance as Alvin,with Rudd showing Alvin's straight-lace attitude to have a blistering effect on Lance,as they both begin to enjoy the silence.
Dominic LeRose
David Gordon Green is a very round filmmaker, making comedies and indie-hits. "Prince Avalanche" is a unique film in which we see Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch play two road workers who spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives. The isolated landscape becomes a place of misadventure as the men find themselves at odds with each other and the women they left behind. Green not only enthralls us into the emotions of these two characters but he immerses us into their jobs. These men play characters who barely live outside their isolation. David Gordon Green's direction is a spectacular bond between the details of nature outside and indie humans. He shows gorgeous natural elements including trees, animals, fire, rain etc. mixed with all different kinds of emotions from Rudd and Hirsch. Green is trying to examine the way humans interact and how everyone is similar to each other in some way no matter how different they may seem. This fits due to the different personalities between the two men focused on. With only four people in this film, Green doesn't really have a plot. Instead, he focuses on fusing the personalities of his lead characters to subtlety creep up on you. The friendship between Rudd and Hirsch is a natural relationship that we fall in love with. Their friendship and lifestyles rule the energy and emotions "Prince Avalanche" possess. With creative long shots, gorgeous music to carry each shot, intelligent humor, and an emotionally-fueled friendship to drive the soul, "Prince Avalanche" works on every level. Paul Rudd shows signs of a serious actor while Emile Hirsch is harder to grasp to. He's annoying in many scenes. There's so many different emotions going on to drive you like a whirlpool that almost all of humanity's traits are shown. Green's simple plot is carried by his smart writing and gorgeous directing that overthrow the absurd climax and give you and rich story that examines human nature and creates a new type of film. This is extraordinary work.
mccarthyedits
I watched Prince Avalanche last night and thought – A bare production doesn't equate to a bare narrative. We open in a Texas State Park where many of its trees are missing due to a recent wildfire. Long takes with a hand-held and sometimes stationary camera follow two road workers. Alvin (Paul Rudd) and Lance (Emile Hirsch) traverse the barren landscape not only trying to repair the park's roads, but also trying desperately to make an emotional connection with the outside world and each other. The bareness in production aspects; hand-held cameras, long takes, low- key score, one set location, and especially the small cast only accentuate Alvin and Lance's struggle. In such a bare and intimate mis-en-scene, the complexities of their insecurities are exposed and deeply felt. Director and Writer David Gordon Green captures a variegated palette that spans the ranges of human feeling. In Prince Avalanche scenes of human frailty and desperation harmonize with moments of ridiculous comedy that then transcend to moments of philosophical wonder.
cristiangurl1010
This movie had beautiful cinematography and great actors. That's where my enjoyment for the movie ended. It is excruciatingly slow paced. It also has a mediocre script. But the actors are awesome, as always. At one point we accidentally paused the movie and didn't realize that the movie was paused for a solid 2 or three minutes. That's a great example of how slow the movie is. It does, however, have some of the best shots I have ever seen on a screen. It is captivating and pretty, but lacks in meaning and real content. I do not fully regret watching it but it was a very painful process to finish it in the hopes that at some point the movie would pick up.
AD
