Anywhere USA

Not bad for an independent movie, but the trend of loosely interconnected story lines just doesn't work for me.Anywhere USA is a movie that involves three separate plot lines which are loosely connected to one another.  Not sure why Hollywood continues to intertwine stories this way seeing as how it rarely seems to work.  I believe most films with this format would work much better separated into 3 shorts - but I digress.  

The first story involves a couple wherein the woman beats the man once a week for pleasure (at least I think), until she finds out he has cheated on her, at which point she throws him out.  This is the best story of the 3 because it comes off very comical.  She then hooks up with a new guy online.  The fun comes in when her ex-boyfriend and his friend come to the conclusion that her new beau is a representative from Al-Qaeda.  Good stuff.  The next story is about a little girl coming of age and discovering that the tooth fairy doesn't exist.  This story is more dramatic and brings things down after the strong comedic start of the movie.  The last story is about an upper class man who realizes he doesn't know any black people.  At first glance this storyline could be funny, but unfortunately the filmmaker takes a dramatic route rather than playing on the potential humor of this scenario.

All in all not a bad movie.  For a low budget independent film, this movie looks highly professional.  One rip I have is that I think they should've kept more of a comedic vibe throughout the movie.  Another thing that bothered me about this film, is that the stories didn't really mix too well with one another.  There was no real connection.  But the thing that saved this movie for me was the first story; it definitely had some classic moments.

Bottom Line: An artsy fartsy film, with a bit of an edge.  Three loosely connected stories that mix comedy with drama.  Not a bad watch, but not sure when it will hit the player again.

- Ragman is jonesing for the Hangover 2...