WINDSOR DRIVE (review)

Review by Joshua Gravel

River Miller is an aspiring actor who never recovered from the suicide of an ex-girlfriend Jordanna, and breaks up with his current girlfriend Brook to move to L.A. River finds a place for rent on Windsor Drive with two room mates and proceeds to seek the attention of nearby casting agent all while battling his own mental instability.

If that sounds like too simple a synopsis for a feature film then I would say that you are correct, and that this should not have been a feature film.

Windsor Drive is a well-made film on a technical level; the cinematography and lighting are at times beautiful, while there simply isn’t much going on within the frame.

The entire movie seems more like a demo reel for the editor as we are given constant flashes or scenes from different angles, flashbacks, flashforwards, upside down footage, you name it and the editor did it.

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that this movie featured three music video style montages of flashbacks and otherwise augmented footage within the first hour alone. You really need to find a better way to imply the main characters mental instability than through constant montage. If someone were to cut all of the actual dialogue scenes and sequences that actually furthered the plot together this once 82-minute feature probably wouldn’t surpass a half hour.

I have say that I simply do not recommend Windsor Drive since it is frankly the most undeservedly pretentious film I have seen in many years and hope that the filmmakers put a bit more into script development on their future projects because they really do have the potential to make a solid film if they do.