King of California

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What Matters More: Gold ...Or Human Connection?, 2008-11-26
In the vein of Little Miss Sunshine in which we have a few high-caliber actors playing roles in a small budget film, KING OF CALIFORNIA is funny and quirky enough to make for an evening of enjoyable film watching. Although I'd give higher praise to Little Miss Sunshine, King of California deserves its own rays. br / br /Michael Douglas got top billing, but it is really Evan Rachel Wood (Down in the Valley) who's the star. We begin and end the film with her, and it is her performance as the teenage Miranda that strikes the strongest chord. Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking anything away from Douglas' manic performance; he did it very well, and it was nice to see him in a not-so-serious role. But Wood pulls off an incredibly strong spot alongside Douglas, and she did it effortlessly. br / br /We have, however, seen this type of set-up before: reversing the roles of responsible adult to that of the child while the irresponsible one is the parent. It's an old Hollywood plot but one that can be used to great advantage if done right. And relative unknown writer/director Mike Cahill (best known for his visual effects work on the CRITTERCAM TV series) does a fine job in giving us a story of touching simplicity and wacky humor. br / br /The story starts out with Miranda (Wood) picking up her father Charlie (Douglas) at a mental hospital during his release. Having lived alone for quite some time, Miranda is a self-motivated woman, keeping up the family home on her own. Her mother (Charlie's ex) also ran away from home during one of Charlie's early mental meltdowns and left Miranda to fend for herself. br / br /Hoping her father might be getting better, any possibility of normalcy is swept aside when Charlie immediately starts searching for a lost 17th century treasure supposedly buried in their now booming community of Santa Clarita, California. Grudgingly being dragged along during late night excursions (to check star alignments) and heat-of-the-day golf course spots, Miranda slowly comes to accept that this might be a good way to bond with her delusional father. But then the discovery that the lost treasure is hidden beneath the concrete foundation of a newly installed Costco seems to put a halt to their plans; but Charlie has no intentions of letting anything get in his way. br / br /Miranda must come to grips with her father's need to connect with something in his life; something that makes his life have meaning. It is Charlie's (and Miranda's) slow realization that this meaning is each other, and this gives the film all of its successful, emotional heft. br / br /Whether or not Charlie found the treasure and gave it to Miranda is irrelevant (as we never see the treasure ...even though it is heavily alluded to). Perhaps the gold wasn't there, perhaps it was. Or maybe -- just maybe -- the gold resides elsewhere, meaning that a connection between father and daughter matters more than any metal.

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great movie!, 2008-10-31
worth the money. dts track not so special. but a great feel good movie with quirky characters and performances!

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Pass the Quirk Please, 2008-09-29
An enjoyable goofy story involving an independent daughters love and support for her crazy like a fox, cynical father, Michael Douglas. His role is a cross between Don Quiote and Long John Silver. This is an entertaining film.

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A search for gold, 2008-08-27
Michael Douglas (Charlie) and Evan Rachel Wood (Miranda) both give sterling performances in this quirky and funny tale of a schizophrenic father (Douglas). Miranda, "always the responsible one in the family" picks up Charlie from the local mental institution where he has been recovering from mental illness for two years only to find out he has devised his craziest scheme ever: finding the treasure of a Spanish Padre buried circa 1624 in a water cave which now is located beneath a Costco's. br / br /Miranda, 15 years old when Charlie was institutionalized and now 17, has been taking care of herself working at McDonald's, and doing very well. She is slowly drawn into her father's scheming to find the treasure, a quest which is guided by the diary of the Spanish Padre across a golf course, construction sites, a grass farm to name a few places and ultimately Costco's where Miranda takes a job giving samples of chowder so she can case the place. br / br /After drilling through several feet of concrete of the Costco floor at night, Charlie's dreaming is vindicated but not without the loss of his life. But he leave a surprise in a dishwasher which Miranda buys at the Costco. Opening up the dishwasher at a remote spot on the California coast, the shine of gold lights her face. And Chinese boys swim out of the serf into California, illegal immigrants, another "crazy" dream of Charlie's that turns out to be true. br / br /I might note that this is the most heavily "Brand Name" laden movie I have ever seen. McDonald's, Phillips, Makita, Applebie's, Costco, Coca Cola, and many other cooperate titles or brand names are flashed. There was a time not so long ago that one never saw a brand name on the screen. Directors even went to great lengths to hide them. I did find this using of a fine movie to raise our awareness of Corporate names distracting. The director, with a bit of effort could have made these Corporate names into a creative and complimentary aspect of this movie. br / br /I find this trend disturbing, and all movie lovers should be concerned. Our consent to watch a movie does not include consent to have advertising displayed during the movie which this amounts to. It will only be when movie lovers either stop going to such exploitive movies or start writing protests to Hollywood that this degrading of the art will stop.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

how to roll a Costco...., 2008-08-17
....and find an old dream underneath waiting to resurface. br / br /This bittersweet film about a madman and his long-suffering daughter takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing "development" (ecological destruction) of Southern California, forcing the viewer to wonder: Who are the truly insane in this film? br / br /A lot of humor goes with this grim implication (the scene with the cop on the golf course is hilarious, if short; the filmmakers also shot a funny golf course scene for SIDEWAYS). I also liked the McDonald's shift manager looking over Miranda's shoulder to make sure she assembled a quarter cheese correctly--this actually happened to me when I was sixteen, working in a Southern California franchise. Some things never change. Miranda and her father stand in for everyone who tries but fails to live in peace with the standardization and industrialization going on all around them. br / br /They also have whatever it takes to "follow your bliss" and try to find some sense of meaning in an increasingly orderly and planned and therefore quite insane urbanized landscape literally covering over the once-verdant earth walked by the so-called savages who appreciated and tended it. br / br /Incidentally, although shot as a romp about a parentified daughter trying to give her bipolar father a sense of purpose, the film bears out what I've written about in Deep California: Images and Ironies of Cross and Sword on El Camino Real and in Terrapsychology: Reengaging The Soul Of Place: what happens to traumatize a colonized and paved-over place never goes away until we find some way to heal the recurring themes by understanding them and reshaping them from within them. Costco and McDonald's are but commercialized and updated missions to convert the locals to a globalized existence that eats their souls and landscapes. The counter-mission resides in the loving heart pursuing its dreams or helping others to, as well-named Miranda does in this Californian tempest. br / br /p.s. For those of you with some knowledge of California history: yes, you're right: no Spanish expeditions during the 1620s. After Cabrillo had been by, landing his ships but making no tours through California, Vizcaino did another sail-by in 1602. After that, no known Spanish incursions came through the state until 1769, when Junipero Serra and his merry band came colonizing. "Santa Clarita" got its name from the river they named "Santa Clara" as they marched through. Incidentally, Miranda's mission history lesson was correct, and not only for the Chumash of the Central Coast: most of the Indians who entered the missions never came out again. br / br /p.p.s. The part about how California got its name is true. The bestseller Miranda refers to was called THE EXPLOITS OF ESPLANDIAN. The author's name was Montalvo. He died just before it got into print. br /