Middle of Nowhere Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Middle of Nowhere Blu-ray Movie Review

Small town teen drama succumbs to its own ennui.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater July 13, 2010

Teen movies are ten-a-penny, but they’re usually glossy, comic productions—gross out sex farces like the American Pie series or coming-of-age tales where teenage awkwardness is played for laughs. Given the usual emphasis on star-power over storytelling, it’s rare to see a completely earnest, down-to-earth drama about the pre-adult set. If lamentable, it makes sense from a marketing perspective, with the studios assuming—probably correctly—that high schoolers would rather see a movie chock full of crass gags and barely covered flesh than an insightful character- driven story about real teen issues. Middle of Nowhere—a movie about family, desperation, and unreachable goals—tries to be the odd exception to that demographically defined rule, and for a while, it’s a strong substitute for the hormone-ridden schlock that’s normally targeted at the under- 21 crowd. Ultimately, though, it slips into dullness and predictability, a reminder that potty humor and bikinis—gratuitously used, as they often are—can at least hold an audience’s attention.

Dorian and Grace

This is strange, since director John Stockwell certainly knows a thing or two about using bikinis to sustain our interest, as his previous films include Blue Crush, Into the Blue, and the vacation-horror outing Turistas. This time around, he’s much more subtle, giving us a tale of small town ennui and family woes, filled with characters who want to get out of, yes, you guessed it, the “middle of nowhere.”

The summer before starting college is supposed to be a last chance to kick back and relax with high school friends, but Grace (Eva Amurri) is seriously freaking out. She’s been accepted to a state school, but her student loan application is denied because her financially reckless mother, played by Amurri’s real life mom, Susan Sarandon, has taken out numerous credit cards in Grace’s name and racked up nearly seventy grand in debt. To secure her enrollment, Grace needs to raise $12,000 by the end of the summer, and her $4/hr job as a lifeguard at the local water park isn’t going to cut it. Cue Dorian Spitz (Anton Yelchin, Star Trek), a troublemaking but well-intentioned rich kid and social outcast who’s been sent to work at the water park to learn some discipline. The car-less Dorian hears about Grace’s financial aide fiasco and offers her $100 if she’ll drive him 20 miles to the house of a “friend.” The friend, as it turns out, is Dorian’s dealer, his supplier for a nascent marijuana-peddling business. Grace sees there’s some easy money to be made driving Dorian around to his clients and bargains her way into a 50/50 split. Of course, she’d never have gotten such a good deal if Dorian didn’t have a thing for her.

As the money comes rolling in and Grace and Dorian timidly test the waters of their feelings for one another, numerous sub-plots twist, intersect, and ultimately taper off, director Stockwell’s vision for the film less developed and coherent than it initially seems to be. Justin Chatwick (Goku in the ill- fated Dragonball Evolution project) shows up as potential rival for Grace’s affections, and a bizarre love quadrangle is formed when Taylor (Willa Holland), Grace’s sister, starts to crush on Dorian. Taylor actually has the most potential as a character, but it goes largely unfulfilled. She’s the prettier of the two sisters, and though their vain mother has pushed her toward modeling as way out of small town existence, it’s not really what she wants to do. Just when the film begins to explore her personality, the resolution of her arc comes in a series of melodramatic platitudes. Likewise, the eventual unraveling of the mystery behind Grace’s mother’s spending problem is unsurprising and lacks its intended emotional punch. Though I appreciate the attempt to flesh out the plot, the numerous motivations, betrayals, and outbursts make the film too diffuse, and the story is better when it keeps to the core drama of Dorian and Grace’s summer moneymaking scheme.

Eva Amurri and Anton Yelchin don’t exactly burn with on-screen charisma—they both seem awkward in ways beyond the quirks of their characters—but they seem like realer people than most of the spray-tanned stooges running through your typical teen movie. This is especially true of Yelchin, who does his share of juvenile stoner philosophizing—“There’s no up and down, man, there’s just free and trapped,” he says regarding the divide between rich and poor—but manages to stay believable and out of over-the-top Pineapple Express territory. (He’s also sympathetic because he’s selling pot. I don’t think we’d empathize as much with a heroin or crack dealer.) Although it tries too hard to jerk tears and tug heartstrings, the scene where Dorian reunites with his birth mom—he’s adopted—is one of the best in the film. And as you’d expect from a mother/daughter duo, Sarandon and Amurri work well together too, even if Sarandon has precious little to do in the handful of scenes she’s been given. Overall, it’s good to see John Stockwell try to branch away from his girls-in-bikinis routine, but Middle of Nowhere is a little like its characters—it’s at a loss for how to fulfill its ambitions.

Middle of Nowhere Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Middle of Nowhere can't exceed its low-budget origins on Blu-ray, and the resultant 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer—while probably true to its source material—looks fairly poor. There are fleeting moments of clarity, but for most of the film the image runs the gamut between noticeably and distractingly soft. Even in the tightest close-ups, fine detail is barely resolved, making for a picture that's only marginally better than upconverted standard definition material. (Just check out the longer shots of the water park—you probably won't believe they're in 1080p.) Color reproduction, if on the dull side, is at least natural, with generally stable skin tones and occasional vividness, like grass greens and the red in the lifeguard uniforms. Black levels are okay, but contrast is slightly flat, leaving little depth and no punch. A moderately thick layer of grain covers everything, leading me to speculate that the film was shot either on 16mm or with a 35mm stock given to chunkiness. Aside from some chroma-noise blotchiness, though, there are few artifacts or other errant, compression-related ills. The biggest distraction here is the rampant softness.

Middle of Nowhere Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The sound design, on the other hand, is a bit better than the film's budget would suggest, although you'll never mistake Middle of Nowhere's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track for, I dunno, Saving Private Ryan. You'd be correct to assume that, as a teen tragi-comedy, the film has a distinct lack of immersive, cross-channel audio cues. That said, this mix does build a case for convincing ambience, frequently filling the rear speakers with quiet—but appreciated—environmental sounds, from crickets and chirping birds to party chatter and water park splashing. The incidental music also gets to fill out the soundfield, and some of the hip hop songs have surprisingly wicked bass response. Otherwise, the track beams predominantly from the front channels, with clear as a bell dialogue and a decent dynamic range. There's nothing particularly remarkable here, but the mix does what it needs to do. English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available in easy-to-read white lettering.

Middle of Nowhere Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Making of "Middle of Nowhere" Featurette (SD, 25:03)
A comprehensive making-of documentary, featuring interviews with the director/producers/actors, clips from the film, and some on-set footage.

Cast and Crew Interview (SD, 11:16)
Includes interviews with director John Stockwell, producers David Lancaster and Nicole Rocklin, and actors Eva Amurri, Anton Yelchin, Justin Chatwin, Willa Holland, and Susan Sarandon.

Deleted Scenes (SD, 6:35)

Trailer (SD, 1:56)

Middle of Nowhere Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Watchable but forgettable is probably the simplest way to describe Middle of Nowhere, a teen drama that never quite congeals, emotionally or narratively, like it should. I'll give it this: it definitely tries to be more substantive than films aimed at this age group typically are. Still, unless you're a fan of the actors, I'd probably pass on this one.