This is the story of an outcast in 1960s Tennessee. It features a rather repulsive human being who appears to have pretty significant mental retardation in addition to his other personality... quirks. I think the audience is supposed to sympathize with him on some level, and I guess I do, but his actions are pretty damn horrific.
Let's start with the movie poster: Four stars - out of what? Jaw-Dropping - I suppose it depends on if your jaw can drop from disbelief that you just sat through this movie. Scott Haze - Yup. He was the main character, but through the entire movie, I don't think he picked up a revolver once. He had a rifle, and they sure as hell went on about it and how he had it since he was a kid, and he could shoot the top off a dandelion at 1000 yards and everything, but no pistols were used (also, they never explained where he got his ammo or where he stored it). James Franco - he was the reason I watched this movie in the first place, he's featured on the poster prominently, his name is called out above the title, and he doesn't show up until 1 hour and 24 minutes in. And he is in it for less than the length of time that Cloverfield was in the movie baring his name. Child of God - there is fundamentally no religious or anti-religious message in this movie, and the name kind of sucks.
Scott Haze plays a completely nuts, angry, violent, sexually repressed necrophiliac who is generally deplorable, and it is embarrassing even to watch him. Most of what he does is either boring or distressing. I think the biggest problem is that it is more often than not just boring as hell or confusing. Trying to put us in the mind of the crazy guy doesn't mean that we actually understand what he's doing or why he's doing it.
James Franco directed this movie. I guess that's why his name is up there in lights, and he's featured so prominently. I don't know if this was his first directorial attempt, but it needs to be his last. While there are some interesting camera shots, the pacing of the movie is terrible, the all-too-frequent voiceovers are intrusive and not particularly helpful, and the terrible scenes of sex with dead girls really doesn't need to happen this often, do they? Oh, and the novelty overbite redneck teeth - they went a bit too far.
Acting was pretty good
Direction was bad
Story was bad
Dialogue was horrendous
Editing was meh
Bottom Line: Not worth the time to watch it.
0.75/5