Product Description

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 11/18/2008 Run time: 88 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52923 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2008-11-18
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.com
Intermingling lives in modern Los Angeles: a musician-drifter (Erik Smith) without a place to crash, a runaway teen (Willa Holland) making bank by posing for Internet cheesecake, a gay Nebraskan (Alexander Cendese) trying to make friends, a real-estate agent (Vinessa Shaw) with a pot-pushing habit... these and others are the satellites circling the general sense of decadence in Jason Freeland's low-key comedy-drama. The film carries a vague echo of Alan Rudolph's Welcome to L.A. in its jaundiced view of the city of angels, but on a much less sophisticated level; the storytelling could use a blood transfusion, and the young characters are stamped from a cookie-cutter. Individual actors try their best, and the always-underused Shaw gets some nice moments going with Richard Gunn, a client with kink. The standout, in a much smaller role, is Ross Patterson, doing an obnoxious talent scout routine (your movie's in trouble, however, when an irritating supporting player is much more fun than the main characters). The final misstep is the title, borrowed from the great Ricky Nelson song about phonies on the loose--a bit of overstatement the film didn't need. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

attending this Party left me wondering why...
Garden Party is one of those movies that feature a few storylines that all intertwine throughout the movie. I usually like movies like this one because I enjoy the variety of characters presented and the interesting ways their lives intersect. Unfortunately, this is one movie that I found my self feeling completely blank on. I neither like it nor hate it. I do feel as if I wasted my time watching it though.
Let me see... there was diversity. There was a real estate agent who was extremely successful who had a few dirty pictures floating around on the internet. She has a stalker guy who is obsessed with her and having woes with his girlfriend and cannot seem to decide if he wants to sell his house. Her assistant is a guy who seems confused... really confused... about his sexuality but he does have an affixation for pot. He picks up this homeless kid who is a musician who is on the verge of being big and develops a swift attraction to him. The homeless kid seems to be a "pleaser" and will do whatever to make someone happy. He meets a girl at a party and she seems to develop some odd... swift sexually charged emotional connection with him. OH! And then there is the young woman who runs away from a "pervert step-father" infested home to live with her lesbian cousin. Also in the mix are a dirty picture photographer who also seems to double as a creepy therapist and an older man who has the lust of a school boy when it comes to women but the attitude of a pig when it comes to them saying no.
So, while the cast is rather diverse and their pasts seem interesting, when it all gets fleshed out it all seems so bland. The acting was serviceable but it just wasn't enough to make me really care for anybody. Even though the film dealt with some rather "dirty" elements, it came off to squeaky clean for my tastes. I have nothing against squeaky clean, don't get me wrong. But I do have a problem when squeaky clean is in a movie that seems to follow the world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Lame horse... meet pasture...

I Went To A Garden Party
Jason Freeland's Garden Party is one of those films that tries hard to be hip and chic but doesn't always hit its mark. The intersecting story film is notoriously hard to pull off. When done well (Altman's Short Cuts, Haggis' Crash) they can be quite realistic and interesting to see. Unfortunately Garden Party comes off as improbable and contrived.

Garden Party (it takes its name from the Ricky Nelson song) attempts to tell the story of a group of young people living in Los Angeles. First there is 15 year old April (Willa Holland) new in town and trying to get by without having to take off her clothes. Sammy is a muscian who is looking for a break, Nathan is a intern at the real estate office of Sally St Clair (Vinesaa Shaw). St. Clair is a pot growing real estate agent who has some particularly nasty skeletons in her closet who is the glue that holds the film together.

While not a bad film it could have been much better. The biggest complaint is that Freeland does little to make his viewers care about his characters or their stories. The entire film has a sort of sordid feel that makes it hard to get into.

As a small release the film is presented in standard definition with no extras to spesk of.

This may be worth a rental if your interest lies in this type of filmmaking.

Shallow, but entertaining
Ensemble cast flick about a bunch of very young Angelinos as they go about their lives. No plot to be bothered with. Some gratuitous nudity. In fact, people seem to be disrobing every few minutes here to compensate for the lack of drama. No matter. This is still entertaining enough for a night's viewing pleasure.