Search - Pop Skull on DVD

Pop Skull will blow your mind.

Travis Stevens | Los Angeles | 07/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pop Skull is a small movie about a small town romance that goes very, very bad. What makes this such an interesting film is that the director Adam Wingard and lead actor Layne Hughes tell this story in a highly stylistic way--the film is filled with stuttering jump cuts, photographic burns, trippy audio and jumps in the time line. While watching the film you truly feel like you are witnessing the events through the eyes of the drugged out protagonist. Trying to figure out what is real and what is hallucination is part of the fun.

This is one of my favorite art-horror films of all time. While it might not be for everyone, fans of David Lynch, Larry Clark and experimental Soderbergh may love it."

Appropriately titled

Alex Faber | Northern NJ United States | 08/13/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Let me just say that my low rating in no way reflects upon the visual quality of the film. For a true indie, low-budget feature, this film shined with strong and believable acting, high production value, and impressive directing and camerawork that led it to be a truly trippy and disquieting film, filled with odd angles, oscillating between a bright and dark color palette, and pummeling the viewer with strobe flashes of intercut images. However, there is little to no story or character, and that's the whole reason I watch movies: to see people and how they react and change when faced with troubling situations.

Lane Hughes stars as Daniel, a druggie who is reeling from a recent breakup. That's pretty much it. For 89 minutes, he gets high and hangs out with his buddy Jeff and his girl, Morgan. There's a bit of action towards the end, and the movie thankfully didn't feature the twist I thought was coming, but the lack of story and character development leaves us with a lot of style, but very little in the way of substance. It's an impressive art piece, I suppose, and it helps that Morgan, played by Hannah Hughes, is gorgeous, but this may have worked much better as a short. If you're seeking an experience, this is a worthwhile one, but I believe movies can be creative as well as entertaining. Unfortunately, this one fails at achieving both.

The DVD comes packaged in a standard Amaray-style DVD case with no chapter insert, although my copy did include a glossy color card featuring a seemingly drug-inspired illustration. The movie is presented in Widescreen, and there are short films, trailers for other Halo 8 movies, and a commentary as special features."