“Virtue is its own punishment,” says Anton Yelchin’s Dorian. He’s an enterprising pot dealer who reels in his waterpark co-worker Grace (Eva Amurri) into being his driver, promising big bucks. She needs 12 grand to go to university in the fall and get out of the credit hole her free-spending mother, Rhonda (Susan Sarandon, also Amurri’s mom in real life) has put her in. Director Stockwell has a deft hand with coming-of-age tales (he directed the excellent Crazy/Beautiful) and this is a solid addition to his body of work, with Amurri a future star in the making. A little like Adventureland, Middle of Nowhere is a sun-dappled American summer movie, with characters intertwining in slight, sweet and sad ways. It isn’t much more than that, but it doesn’t have to be.
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2010.
This movie came recommended to me because I’m a huge fan of The Go-Getter, and I heard this was similar – a coming of age indie dramedy with some romance thrown in and a killer indie rock soundtrack. The Susan Sarandon/Eva Amurri mother/daughter combo was enticing too, and this movie just came to Netflix Instant Watch, so I checked it out.
The movie starts off great, with awesome pacing and some hilarious/awkward moments. I think Anton Yelchin does a great job as Dorian, and they made him a realistic character instead of just a stock idiot drug dealer. However, it did seem to tail off in the second half, and just started to feel a little too indie/emo for me…still, definitely worth a watch.
The music didn’t disappoint at all though, and while I would’ve loved some M. Ward like in the Go-Getter, there were great selections here, too. I especially liked Oslo’s “No Regrets” which played the first time Grace (Amurri) drove Dorian to a drug deal, unknowingly (you can watch at http://vimeo.com/22308888 )
Also, in the scene when Dorian meets Grace’s little sister Taylor and they played Middle Distance Runner’s “The Sun & Earth” I thought it was cool how they incorporated the song into the script ( watch at http://vimeo.com/22308533 )