Sour Party Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Sour Party Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 13, 2025

Sour Child is the brainchild of a consortium including Amanda Drexton, Michael Drexton and Samantha Westervelt, and considering the fact that all three co-wrote and two co-star, it's probably unavoidable that this intermittently enjoyable goof comes off as something of a vanity project. The film follows the trials and tribulations of two female slackers named Gwen (Samantha Westervelt) and James (Amanda Drexton), who are first seen trying to become sidewalk entrepreneurs by stealing expensive succulents from the upscale yards of Angelinos and then attempting to sell them to passersby. That completely bizarre opening is the veritable tip of an iceberg of "cool" comedy, by which is meant a certain arch and detached approach that will probably resonate best with those who like their humor to resemble their martinis, namely dry.

This is a vignette driven enterprise, with the women encountering various out there characters in almost skit adjacent interchanges, kind of like a hipster version of Saturday Night Live, and actually in more ways than one, since the writing here can definitely be hit or miss. The two focal characters are really kind of useless, which is of course part of the humor, but it makes actually "rooting" for them to succeed on their quest to get a baby shower present for Gwen's sister a bit of a challenge. The film has some amusing bits here and there, but the stunt casting of Corey Feldman as a cult leader may be too forced to generate many laughs. There is an affably jaundiced view of the "weirdnesses" of Los Angeles that helps keep things afloat most of the time, and both Westervelt and Drexton are well matched as what might be thought of as the distaff version of Dumb & Dumber, despite any protestations from James in particular that she "knows how to function".

Sour Party Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sour Party is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits have mentions of both Arri and Canon EOS cameras, and this has an appealingly sharp and detailed looking presentation a lot of the time, at least within the context of an obviously very low budgeted and at times at least shot on the fly production. That latter element can lead to some slight issues with regard to clarity as focus pulling may be a bit variant at times, but outdoor material (which is ubiquitous) in particular looks great, with nice fine detail levels and very well suffused palette. Some of the interior footage can look a bit murky, without much shadow definition. I noticed no major compression issues.

Sour Party Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sour Party unfortunately offers only a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, "unfortunately" because the film is stuffed full of garage rock tunes used both diagetically and as near constant underscore. The Dolby Digital mix provides good surround activity, especially considering the glut of outdoor material where ambient environmental effects enter the fray, but with so much of the music offering powerful midrange and low end instrumentation, a lossless offering certainly would have been preferable. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Sour Party Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Sour Party Video Yearbook (HD; 3:47)


• Audio Commentary with writer / director / star Amanda Drexton, writer / director Michael Drexton, star Samantha Westervelt and cinematographer Steven Moreno

Sour Party Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is one of those films where my hunch is people are either going to love it or hate it, and in that regard, the good news is you'll probably be able to tell which camp you fall into within just a few seconds of things getting underway. A lot of the writing frankly didn't completely click for me, but I found the focal duo to be at least semi-hilariously inept a lot of the time. Technical merits are great (video) to improvable (lossy audio), for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.