I’m also curious about the movie itself. Evan Godall wrote, directed, co-starred, co-edited and co-produced Bellflower, so I’m guessing Godall isn’t passionate about the film in the slightest. Here’s the synopsis:

Bellflower follows two friends who spend their time building flamethrowers and other weapons in the hope that a global apocalypse will occur and clear the runway for their imaginary gang, Mother Medusa, to reign supreme. While waiting for the destruction to commence, one of them meets a charismatic young woman and falls in love—hard. Quickly integrating into a new group of friends, the pair set off on a journey of betrayal, love, hate, and extreme violence more devastating than any of their apocalyptic fantasies.

Sounds promising. Although the teaser makes it seem they’re in an actual post-apocalyptic world, not just a fantasy, and that last sentence makes me think it’ll be more about the relationship than battling dudes on motorcycles. Still, Bellflower is now officially on my radar Drive, Medusa. Drive…

Bellflower strikes me as the typical film festival indie movie about relationships. It’s watchable and relatable, still the “Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl” formula.  The post-apocalyptic obsession is not enough of a distinction, not after Clerks exploded pop culture references decades ago.

Aiden (Tyler Dawson) and Woodrow (Evan Glodell) are obsessed with Mad Max and they’re building their own flamethrower to put on their dream road warrior car, The Medusa. Woodrow meets Milly (Jessie Wiseman) at a bar and she’s so cool they go on a road trip for their first date. They have a sweet relationship, even tough Woodrow’s obviously insecure the way he keeps repeating “this is nice” and suggests that sex wasn’t good for her.

Then things get awkward and uncomfortable. Milly really hurts Woodrow and sends him into a spiral. He uses the flamethrower to burn Milly’s belongings and things escalate from there. Milly’s other ex, Mike (Vincent Gradshaw), gets violent and Woodrow rebounds with Milly’s friend Courtney (Rebekah Brandes), even though Aiden likes her.

At least they deal with emotions and real reactions, which are messy and unclear, just not necessarily dramatic. Milly leaves her jewelry box at Woodrow’s place, but she doesn’t know what her plans are later. Aiden is the greatest friend ever because Woodrow’s feelings are more important to him than his own love interest.

It goes Jerry Springer, especially with Courtney and Milly having it out with vulgar screaming and trashy brawling. Maybe the point is to show the consequences of hurting people?

It’s a solid vehicle for four new actors. It shows they can hold the screen. With Glodell writing and directing, they show they can complete a film too, which we shouldn’t forget is a major hurdle to most of the wannabes. If the same actors do another movie I’ll be interested enough to see if there’s any improvement. They really appealed to me.