Texas (2005)

This movie is obnoxious, much like the characters within it. It's about a group of friends who party their days away, trying to ignore that finances and outside events are causing them to drift apart. It starts off in the middle of its big final setpiece, with everyone freaking out over offenses and slights we know nothing about, then it tracks back and shows us how we got to this point. It proceeds to become one of those what-hath-Amelie-wrought? movies with cutesy metafilm tinkering and characters defined solely by their quirks -- one character, for instance, is forever wandering around asking the other characters if they have any weed. These aren't characters, they're irritants, and if they were my friends I'd shoot myself for having a life so pathetic that I hang around these genetic wastes. But that's apparently not bad enough for neophyte director/lead actor Fausto Paravidino -- he gradually tries to get serious about these wispy constructs. This gradual darkening leads to an ending that is ugly and mean and entirely unfit for the movie that precedes it. Paravidino probably thinks this is profound. He probably thinks it says something about life, failure, repressed emotions, aimlessness and despair. All it says to me, though, is that Paravidino has a seriously fucked-up outlook on life. If this movie had a face, I would punch it as hard as possible.

Grade: D