Customer Reviews

Beat Angel - the Spirit of Kerouac

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww! " (Jack Kerouac)

The only people for me are people who make movies like this! I will admit, it's NOT your typical Hollywood fare but the story is creative, it's extremely visual - each camera shot a painting, and after the first ten minutes, this film finds it's rhythm - beat, beat, beat, burn, burn, burn. I think we are so used to having stories shoved down our throat and being predictable, that a film like this took a bit of attention by this viewer, but the message, particularly to anyone with an artistic bent, is well worth the journey. The actors are all well cast and compelling - Vincent Balestri brings a sweetness to his role as a bum who embodies the spirit of Jack Kerouac on the anniversary of his death. For me, he humanizes my image of the mythic Kerouac. Frank Tabbita is rock solid as the narrator/protagonist and I can't get Amy Humphrey's face out of my head. You don't have to be a Kerouac fan to enjoy this film, but I think it would help. Again, for an indie film, it's very well done and beautifully filmed!

i dont like hollywood movies and this indie film was refreshing. i liked the theme of creative freedom. the poetry scene really brings that out. the guy who plays kerouac is totally engrossing. im not a jazz fan, i like blues. but here jazz is part of the story and it worked well for me. the movie looks pretty low budget but i think they gave it a grimy look on purpose and it suits the mood like the jazz. The ending gave me the exact same feeling as the ending of 'american beauty'- id give it a B+

Absolutely enthralling.
I found the whole production, acting, script, the poetry and the music, and such music, fantastic.If you are like me, thoroughly fed up with the tired boring and childish Hollywood fare that is dished up these days, aimed at a mental age of about 11, here is something different to make you think about art, and about a time when art, poetry and music really mattered. Because it has no carchases, violence or steamy sex scenes, it'sit is well worth seeing and sharing to your thinking friends. the poetry scene alone is worth the price of the DVD. The performance of all the main actors was was awesome, for an arthouse production of this type.
A highlight!

What an impressive independent film (shot on 16mm with analog sound!). A film that any Kerouac and beat generation afficionado will enjoy. The cinematography and direction(Randy Allred) is superb! The music in the film is perfect and the cast is very talented from the starring actors to the supporting roles, all well chosen and people who I hope to see more of on the big screen.

Though this film is great to see on DVD, I think such a film deserves to be seen at a real cinema(take note film festival selection committees!)

This IS Jack Kerouac, in all his contradictory, sweet glory -- the recording angel of the American soul, observing & writing it all down in words that dance, sob, sanctify & exult, both the darkness & the light -- forever wandering, forever home, forever searching, forever curious & heartbroken & joyful.

Yes, it's rough around the edges -- but that actually suits the story of Jack's spirit returning to life for one day, to inspire three lost creative souls to return to their writing & painting. While everyone is superb, let me single out Ann Humphrey as the young, insecure, aspiring writer who just needs a supportive nudge in the right direction -- she radiates vulnerability & idealism. But Frank Tabbita as a cynical, disillusioned writer, and Lisa Niemi as the bartender who gave up her dream of painting but never lost her love for it, are just as outstanding.

Still, it's Vincent Balestri's incarnation of Jack Kerouac that's the heart of this beautiful, powerful, and often very funny film. Within a couple of minutes, you'll forget that you're watching a performance & swear that Jack is alive on the screen, spitting holy fire & profane honey, reminding all of us that what we've buried within our own hearts is worthwhile & needs to be expressed. This is genuine inspiration: pure & honest & unflinchingly naïve, but never maudlin or mawkish.

For all those who've let go of their dreams & desperately hunger to find them again, most highly recommended!

Writer/director Randy Allred's film does what any great movie should: imprint indelible images on the mind. Through Jack Kerouac's spirit, returned to life to inspire three struggling artists, "Beat Angel" shows what it means to produce "art from the heart." The camera sets the perfect stage for the story and the message, and the acting is superb. You believe these characters. Kerouac's soliloquy in the bar, a staccato explanation of what it means to be an artist, is a dramatic masterpiece. My only reservation is that the improv jazz score, while entirely appropriate for the theme and a fine accompaniment for most of the picture, at times gets to be too much for me, detracting from rather than enhancing the overall effect.

"Beat Angel" is a wonderful film on many levels. It captures the spirit not only of Jack Kerouac but of the beat movement itself. It addresses his guilt ridden life and unhealthy attachment to his mother, his rather pitiful death, and briefly alludes to his supposed homosexuality.

It is also a story of writers, their angst and the writing process. A nice touch is a scene that depicts the agony and the ecstasy of the coffee house/bar beat poetry scene. The poetry reading in the bar is worth the price of the DVD.

Vincent Balestri is particularly good as Kerouac.

Have you ever heard the wail of a saxaphone player as he hops and bops his way thru a solo and back to the track of the rhythm in the song?
And the syncopation of the word when spoken from the page as it leaps into your mind from reverse disassembly?
It's how expansion strips in old concrete hiways pop and bop their sound against your tires, like unwelded railroad tracks on a lazy freight train's hobo rider.
Who was this guy named Jack, who wrote the flow of words from a universal mind that wound around the world like hiways criss-cross across a flat expanse of mundane grey suits and ties with fries and burger joints across America in eternal search for the equation of NOW and how do we get there from here.
This is the quest, and Beat Angel shows the way, and blows away the chaff, with each beat of the wings.

If you are a Kerouac fan you will love this film. Vincent Balestri brings Jack back to life. The rest of the cast is believable in this haunting story of Kerouac returning to help a struggling writer. After all if any author knows struggle, it's Jack Kerouac.

I'm a big fan of the beat generation but this film was slow and poorly done. Don't waste your money.