Crossroads

Review by Richard R. for Crossroads
Rating:
CROSSROADS, a movie about three teenage girlfriends who have drifted apart quite a bit throughout the four years in high school. At the time of the movie the three girls, Lucy (Britney Spears), Mimi (Taryn Manning) and Kit (Zoe Saldana) meet back up at a special spot, and later begin a long journey across America. On this trip they discover something that they used to know, but had lost track of…their amazing friendship. This movie really is a good film about friendship and some of the most important things in life, that many take for granted. Britney Spears, along with her co-starring girls and Anson Mount (Ben) do an incredible job of portraying young girls (and guy) learing their way to adulthood. We all knew that Britney Spears could dance and sing extremely well, but did we know that she was such a great actress? Well, if there were any doubts about the extent of this girls talent, it seems that it’s endless. Spears shows an extreme passion for acting and does it very well in the role of Lucy. It would be great to see Spears acting even more in the future. The movie also brings in some great appearances by Dan Aykroyd and Kim Cattrall, who play Lucy’s parents, Pete and Caroline. If ever in the mood for a fun, campy movie that’s a little bit comedy and a little bit drama, turn to CROSSROADS and your multi-talented girl, Britney Spears.

Review by A. Gyurisin for Crossroads
Rating:
Sadly, I am a sucker for films that nearly everyone has knocked over backwards. I want to discover, myself, if these occasionally hidden cinematic gems are still hiding or if big corporate Hollywood has just smeared them enough to nearly wipe them out of film existence. With “Crossroads”, there was enough plague surrounding it that friends nearly shunned me for weeks knowing that this film was in my house, more-so in my DVD player. Yet, I found persistence, and I watched with open eyes – twice actually, so that I can fully develop the sheer strength that “Crossroads” had to offer. Well, friends, Romans, and fellow cinephiles out there, I can now officially add “Crossroads” to the list of horrid films that everyone quivers over yet has actually never seen. I have seen “Crossroads”, and I can stand up on a soapbox and announce that it is not the horrid trash everyone speaks about, but it also isn’t worth the film it is printed on. This was a cookie-cutter film, produced by Hollywood to benefit the distribution of CD sales and promote the already growing popularity of one Britney Spears. This was not a film, but a platform from Ms. Spears, and by listening to the commentary, you begin to realize the power that this young girl once had – I stress the word “once”. Now, two kids and several tabloids later, I am not sure that this film could even see the light of day.

To begin, because that is always a good starting point with films of this nature, I must take a step forward and say that the acting wasn’t excruciating, but it was painful. It was obvious that our three leads, Spears, Saldana, and Manning, were quickly becoming strong friends – and that friendship translated well onto the screen, but it was their individual stories and accomplishments that created the pain. In one scene, we saw this trio as little girls – friends without a care in the world – then instantly we are pushed into the awkward high school dark ages where nobody is friends with anyone. Riffs have been issued, and we are asked to rediscover who these characters are again. Matching them with their young counterparts is easy, but when their mouths open, it is another world all together. Spears leads with a hodgepodge of different characteristics. She dances sensually in her bedroom, unrobes nonchalantly in front of her lab partner, but is most avid about doing the right thing when it comes to morality and truthfulness. There is even one scene where she hangs up on her father, no doubtably instilling the correct visions into her impressionable teen fan base. She couldn’t give us a straight character to save her life. Coupled with the annoying Zoe Saldana who tries the hardest of the group, but cannot seem to quite understand the life surrounding her. Then, painful to write, there is Taryn Manning (who gets better with each film) using every cliché redneck white-trash persona possible to define her character. It isn’t bad enough that we have Spears fading in and out of her “real” character that to have Manning use “y’all” like it is Shakespeare – yikes. Again, the acting isn’t bad (I have seen far, far, far worse), but it isn’t Juliard – closer to flunking out of Acting 101.

I have mediocre respect for director Tamra Davis. The woman that gave us the hysterical and near cult-classic “Billy Madison” as well as “Half-Baked”, has also turned out slow duds like “Gun Crazy” and, surprise, “Crossroads”. Her talent seems to be all over the place instead of choosing projects that will continue to define her. Listening to the commentary, it felt she did this to 1) work with Spears, 2) she needed the rent money, and 3) it was an all girl cast – her youthfulness will be returned. Not exactly the typical reasons artist create on a blank slate. With Davis, I wanted humor, darkness, or anything that would make me remember why I loved “Madison” or “Half-Baked’ – ANYTHING – there was nothing. Did I expect it with “Crossroads”, probably not, but it would have been nice to see something that was uniquely hers. Road movies are made weekly, and it is those road films that try to bring something new to the genre that stand out and bring more to the table. Wasn’t “Billy Madison” just a take-off of “Back to School”? I just question the ability of Davis without a studio baking and thankfully she has taken her raw, rotten talent to television only to further infuse the masses.

We are left with nothing more than the story. What story did “Crossroads” tell? How about one lone girl’s quest to find herself and loose her virginity? Does that sound right? Again, this wasn’t rocket science writing, yet it seemed amateur from the first word. We know who Spears’ love interest is going to be from the beginning, the “take” at the end is given away within the first twenty minutes, and the only strength to this entire film is a scene with Dan Aykroyd saying “I was a Ghostbuster, a Blues Brother, and Conehead – I did this film for my kids”. I believe that sums up this whole story in a nutshell. Needless to say, the story lacked any depth, and there was one scene where we attempted to bring real life to the screen with a rape, an accidental death, and our old friend, “underage drinking”. Thankfully, Spears could push beyond all this and finally sing her songs near the end, the obvious finale to the film that was started. The ending point didn’t match with the starting point in this film.

So, I watched this film. Everyone will have to at one point in their life, I just shortened the inevitable. Again, it wasn’t the worst film ever made, “Glitter” still ranks below this, but there wasn’t any value in the final performance. Spears didn’t push for this film to be made because she wanted to be an actress, she wanted more face time with an audience that seemed on the fence about her ability – and as time has shown, we didn’t make the best assumption. The acting wasn’t horrible, but everything else was so we are left with a sour taste in our mouth coming from all directions. I will not, nor suggest this film to anyone except my wife, who thought it was better than “Clerks II”.

Ouch. I will end on that note.

Grade: ** out of *****