Nonureva Really Surprised!

Cortechba Overrated

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

MBunge When this thing finished, I was a bit flabbergasted. I had to go an look at the "making of" featurette on the DVD to try and make sense of what I just saw. During it, they spent more time talking about the soundtrack than they did about the story. They spent more time talking about the set design than they did about the story. They spent more time talking about the camera they used to shoot Juncture than they did the story. And that helped me to understand this movie. A lot of reasonably talented filmmakers and performers made a great deal of effort, but all their work was undermined by a horribly conceived and terribly executed script.Anna Carter (Kristine Blackport) is a pretty young woman who runs the multi-million dollar charity of business tycoon Jonathan Lamont (John Hutton). Anna has a beautiful home, a best friend named Chloe (Elizabeth Rose) who works as a legal secretary in the district attorney's office and flies around the country in a private jet for meetings related to the work of the Lamont Foundation. She also has a brain tumor and takes time out on her business trips to murder people she feels haven't been punished for their sins.Let me stop right here and ask a question. Based on what I've described, what is the most important and interesting question you have about the character of Anna Carter? Isn't it, why did she decide to start killing people? And maybe some secondary questions also leap to mind, like how does she decide who to kill or how does she actually kill them? Those sorts of things are the most important things to know about this woman, right? The answers to those kind of questions will more clearly and more powerfully define Anna's character than anything else, won't they?Well, those questions are never answered in Juncture. Those questions are never even asked. We join Anna already well into her deadly spree with how and why she got to that point left almost totally unexplored. I say almost, because there's a point toward the end when Anna explains herself to her newly acquired boyfriend (Bill LeVasseur). Just as she starts, though, the dialog is muted and the soundtrack rises up so we can only see Anna talking and can't hear anything she says. That either shows off an astounding lack of awareness, or that director James Seale knew he was leaving out the most significant part of his story, did it for a particular reason and filmed Anna's explanation that way to thumb his nose at anyone in the audience who didn't understand why he left it out. Well, I don't understand it. I know I'm not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but I think Seale's the one who doesn't know what the heck's he was doing.In addition to leaving out the best part, this film is riddled with other bad writing. There are too many characters. Anna's boyfriend is almost totally superfluous. He's only necessary so the movie can have a sex scene and to introduce another character who turns out to be vital at the end. Of course, the character that's vital for the end doesn't get introduced until Juncture is almost two-thirds over. I mean, come on! That's basic stuff. If something is going to be important for the conclusion of your tale, you establish it at the beginning. You don't chuck it into the mix when the film's more than halfway over. The dialog is also utterly unexceptional and the whole thing ends on a cliffhanger that leaves Anna's internal and external conflicts unresolved. It's like this is a long, boring prologue and the real movie should start just as the closing credits role.All of which is a shame, because this is a very nice looking motion picture. It's not all that flashy, but it covers an amazing number of locations for an indy flick and there's a real breadth and depth to a lot of the imagery. The cast also do fine work, though they're often dragged down by sketchily drawn roles and badly thought out scenarios.There's also an oddly dated quality to some of Juncture. A dinner party monologue by Anna sounds like a deleted scene from a 1970s vigilante movie. Anna also has files on all of her targets. However, they're not computer files. She has manila folders full of sheets of paper and newspaper clippings, like they came straight out of the office a private investigator from the year 1982.The people behind Juncture look like they could make a pretty good film. This is a fairly bad one, but there's enough evident talent to give you some hope for the future. As long as that future isn't an interminable sequel to this movie.

aimless-46 John Huston once said that a good story should have "excitement, color, spectacle and humor, adventure, high drama, tragedy, good conversation, truth and irony". Although 2007's "Juncture" is missing most of these ingredients it does manage to put most of its tiny budget on the screen in a professional manner and should get high marks for the crew's hard work. But it is one of those sow's ears to silk purse things where you just can't do much with such a weak script (thankfully the writer has had no screen credits since).This low budget action picture is basically a combination of "Death Wish" (1974) and "La Femme Nikita" (1990); with a sterile heroine both homicidal and irritable from a bad headache.Kristine Blackport, in her first and only feature, plays Anna Carter, an executive who has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. With three months to live she decides to check out with a bang by taking out criminals who have abused children and been inadequately punished by the judicial system. That old vigilante justice thing.Blackport looks like Leighton Meester, which probably accounts for a lot of close-ups of her face and eyes. This is a good thing with Meester, because an "actress" is able to use close-ups to nonverbally convey things about her character and to connect with viewers. Unfortunately Blackport's skills are more on the order of Ali Larter (well maybe not quite that bad); with an emotional and sensuality range confined to a look of dull surprise and the occasional blink. A competent "acting for the camera" director could have helped, but James Seale appears to entirely lack that skill set. Like the writer, he too has been on the sidelines since directing this movie. Blackport fares much better on the DVD's behind the scenes featurette, where you begin to suspect that Seale's directing contributions add up to "less than zero".So poor Blackport gamely plods around with little help from the likewise unskilled supporting cast as they cut back and forth between wide master shots and extreme closeups; without managing to create an identifiable point of view or a character with any sort of dimensionality.The DVD release includes a filmmaker's commentary (gag), a behind the scenes featurette (excellent), deleted scenes, trailers, and Spanish subtitles. Given all this extra stuff it is extremely odd that they did not choose to include English subtitles. The audio is a not very good and Blackport's squeaky "Rocky the Flying Squirrel" voice is often inaudible. Maybe this was a way to add some dimensionality to the Anna Carter character, a viewer can mentally replace inaudible elements of lame dialogue with comments from Robert Shiller about the state of the economy.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

iunostar245 I recently saw Juncture at the Mill Valley Film Festival and was completely blown away. I honestly had no idea what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised. Juncture is the right combination of action, thriller, suspense and drama and it poses some very interesting moral questions. Lead lady Kristine Blackport (as Anna Carter)'s presence is unforgettable. The viewer experiences Anna's journey through the last few months of her life and what she chooses to do with that precious time. I laughed and cried with Anna. And the film definitely left me pondering about what I would do in a similar situation. It's always nice to see strong female characters presented in film. Excellent story and dialogue. Beautiful cinematography. Impressive acting. The music also was very strong and helped support the dramatic moments of the film. All in all, I highly recommend Juncture.

tonyhag A dying Protagonist Blackport goes on a an angel of vengeance killing spree meeting out her own kind of justice on those who got away with it.Its been done many times before, but I have to admit this film is well made and carries the storyline very well and the main character is top notch and I must admit, I have never heard of Kristine Blackport, but she has done an excellent job of portraying the warped her heroine of the movie.Also top marks to the writer and director who have in effect made one hell of a good movie.