I heard about this movie just over two years ago, and was excited to see it from the get go.
I have seen literally everything in Bob Morley’s filmography so the idea of missing out one was just maddening to me. So naturally I went on and on relentlessly to him, until it came out. Then when it finally did I tried to find it anywhere to rent it or buy it online without waiting an astronomically long time or paying a ridiculous fee for something that I wasn’t even sure was worth it.
In the end I relented, $34 spent on amazon and a long wait later (its wasn’t that long about 2 weeks but it felt like months) It finally arrived. So here is what we thought…
Premise.
Kyle (Thomas Dekker) and his girlfriend Eva (Haley Bennett) Arrive in Tel Aviv (The White City) to house sit for a friend and rekindle their passions (including their relationship)
Eva is a writer and poet, seeking inspiration and friendship whilst looking for an adventure in a new city.
Kyle on the other hand, a wannabe Avant Gardé filmmaker, selfish asshole and pervert just wants to film a range of people and generally be creepy.
Eva has a friend from college (Shayne) who has her own art gallery opening (which coincides with the holiday) so naturally they go. Whilst they are there they are introduced to Avi (Bob Morley) An ex soldier, who was finally free of military confines and able to be free and chill before moving on to the next chapter of his life.
After this chance encounter, Kyle bumps into Avi and asks if he knows any bomb wreckages within the city. Avi takes him to an old club that was blown up by a suicide bomber, to which Kyle is a weird pervert once again and asks Avi to remove his shirt and drink something foamy out of a shot glass. Thus starts Kyle being a pervy creepy photographer and Avi being the unsuspecting muse.
This quickly develops into an odd obsession on Kyle’s part whilst Avi is more interested in Eva.
This goes on and on round and round as I have said Kyle being creepy, Eva being generally a likable but undeveloped character. Avi didn’t get much in the way of character depth, there could have been a lot more back story or even time with him but sadly it seemed lacking.
Sooo overall…
Him: She went on and on about this, but I still wasn’t sure about this. But having watched it, I can say it is better than I expected, But it still lacked that oomph that many Indy films do lack. It needed more development, more preview screenings or a more critical eye on the rushes to say what was needed and more importantly what wasn’t.
Dekker (apart from getting fat in recent years) doesn’t give much weight to his role! Bennett is under used and Morley’s character is underdeveloped. He however is clearly the main pull for the film and the director used the actor mostly for his body in order to get an interested audience and hype the film. If you studied the pre release imagery you’d have expected Avi to spend the entire film in a pair of very tight blue Speedos (he doesn’t).
The concept is good, the imagery is fine, the music was ok and the cinematography has a few moments but it just lacks that finesse, you expect of a bigger budget production.
But I’d still say it’s worth a watch when it finally gets an airing on TV or Netflix in the distant future (because don’t hold your breath for a quick release!)
6/10
Her: I was so excited about this movie! I searched and searched for cinemas, online sites and the DVDs in order to see this movie. 2 years later I finally ordered the DVD and waited for my delivery. The biggest disappointment was the fact that we are in the UK and to see this you seem to have to only be in USA or pay an obscene amount of money in order to buy it (Which I ended up doing).
After all that the movie itself was strange, I’m not really sure that there was much of a plot line and I cannot say a lot happened.
I am going to be honest here, I was watching it for Bob Morley (I have watched his whole filmography and didn’t want to leave anything out) I was not disappointed. He completely transformed. His accent (though I am not sure what an Israeli accent sound’s like) sounded completely different from any other role, his body language, his expressions, even the way he looked was different. Although his role is under used and he is almost viewed as a sexual object, he still manages to break out and be seen for more than that.
Though I wish he had more back story or development.
As far as the other characters, I mostly felt sorry for Eva and wanted to see more of her evolution throughout, sadly again she was almost brushed aside.
Kyle however was the main focus, which I found hard to handle. Dekker’s Character was obnoxious! I couldn’t believe that Eva was with him to begin with, they were opposites and he clearly didn’t care about her. Kyle spent most of the movie, sabotaging her social events, perving on Avi and getting generally jealous when he wasn’t the center of attention.
With that being said I can’t really remember many of the scenes which had him as a primary focus, as fairly quickly I realized that I didn’t like the character and almost focused on everything around him.
The ending was unexpected though!
All in all, I am very glad I watched this, and probably will watch it again. It probably wasn’t worth the amount of money I paid but I am happy I have now seen it!
But would I recommend a non Morley fan to watch it?
Probably not.
7/10
Climbing Moss 
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