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Film Reviews of LEXIE CANNES are in! I'll put quotes and other useful commentary from them on this page.
Links to the full review can be found elsewhere on this page. I'll add more as they come in. Enjoy!
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". . ."Lexie Cannes" is a uniquely written and photographed film that almost taunts the audience with a dizzying array
of imagery, emotions, dialogue (mostly spoken in American Sign Language) and grainy, mind-altering cinematography . .
."
". . . Bertling has fashioned together a film that is part romance, part mystery, part social statement and nearly always
a complex exploration of one woman's relationship to the world that surrounds her. "
"As Lexie, newcomer Courtney O'Donnell builds her character nicely given the challenge of creating an ever-changing young
woman without the use of the spoken language. O'Donnell does this with her facial expressions, her body language and those
hypnotic eyes of hers that grow increasingly wary as the film progresses."
"Lexie Cannes" benefits tremendously from the mood-setting score of composer Bill McGee, and Bertling's cinematography
is often appropriately unsettling.
" . . . a film for the discerning audiences who find inspiration in unique artistic visions, intriguing characters and
filmmaking that defies any semblance of the Hollywood machinery and the cinematic crap it produces."
-Richard Propes, The Independent Critic Reviewer
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"Lexie Cannes looks amazing, Lexie is deaf, so the movie is
told from the perspective of a deaf person, which is a very interesting point of view, there is sound in the movie, but when
the characters speak, it's largely with sign language and is subtitled. The story is a good one . . ."
"The serial killer story was interesting and riveting, the story of Lexie's personal
life was compelling and her back-story was great . . ."
"I'm giving Lexie Cannes three out of four cigars, it's not perfect, but it's very
real and very compelling. . . ."
-Brian Morton, Rogue Cinema Reviewer
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"Lexie Cannes, this film’s title character, is a deaf,
transvestite [transgendered] prostitute living in Portland, Oregon. She tries to sustain a relationship with her girlfriend
Rhonda, develop her skills as a photographer, and try to keep herself and the people she cares about safe.
This is certainly a very unique movie. It is essentially a silent
film, because its main character communicates with everyone she meets through sign language or writing on paper. . . ."
"One of the greatest benefits of this format is that, not only
does it reach out to the deaf community, but it provides a great opportunity for actors to act in a very different manner.
In this case, that paid off very well, as the acting was very expressive. . . ."
". . . this film has many different visual aspects. In this
case, however, that tactic seemed to work quite well. . . . The images ranged from Ghost Hunters-style grainy night vision
shots of Portland to artistic scenes and dreamlike images to traditionally shot interior scenes.
"I particularly liked the creepy effect of the grainy, surreptitious,
“stalker” footage that popped up randomly throughout the film. . . ."
"The score comprised many alternating beautiful and eerie pieces
of music strung together throughout the film. It does make a nice soundtrack that seems to match with the overall theme, .
. ."
"Lexie Cannes has a very unique style, which might find a cult following
because of its quirks."
This is a very daring and ambitious project, and many of the more unusual and
experimental aspects of this movie were done successfully. This is certainly a sign of good things to come.
Rating: 8 out of 10.
- Monika DeLeeuw-Taylor, Microfilmmaker Magazine
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A well-known indie film reviewer included "Lexie Cannes" in his Top 10 Indie Films for 2009!
2009:
My Year In Review - By Brian Morton, ROGUE CINEMA
#8 - Lexie Cannes: When you tell someone that the movie is about
a deaf transgendered person who's hunting the kidnapper of a missing girl, you might get some strange looks, but Lexie Cannes
manages to take a strange premise and make it utterly watchable! Not dwelling in the 'oddness' of its characters, writer/director
Tom Bertling instead treats these people are real, and so we're drawn into this compelling little tale of women helping other
abused women! Take a walk in the night with Lexie by visiting the Lexie Cannes web site.
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Pulpmovies Reviews
By Paul Prichard
Rating: 4-Stars
http://www.pulpmovies.com/reviews/lexie-cannesThe synopsis I saw for Lexie Cannes presents the film as a thriller in which the eponymous heroine finds
herself stalked by two men, one relatively harmless, the other much less so. This description is accurate as far as it goes,
but it does undersell a film that has a much broader scope than this.
More a drama than a thriller, the film is primarily
a study of the character of Lexie Cannes herself, and what a character she is. Lexie is a deaf, transsexual woman building
a life for herself as a photographer in Oregon. She has some relationship problems, a broadening circle of friends, a desire
to put her past behind her and a strong urge to help when she encounters people in trouble. There are many layers to her personality
but what shines through most strongly is Lexie’s essential humanity. While her specific circumstances will be unfamiliar
to most, the core tale of someone coming to terms with their past so they can build a future is one with which anyone can
empathise.
It is to the credit of writer/director, Tom Bertling that he has managed to develop a character that faces
such a specific set of circumstances in a manner that feels almost familiar to a general audience. Lexie Cannes is a complex,
fascinating and very well rounded character and she is superbly brought to life by Courtney O’Donnell who, in the title
role, does a great job of capturing the complexity of the character.
While the plot can feel a bit episodic in places,
this is more than made up for by both the strength of the performances and the atmosphere the film achieves. Logically, for
a film about a deaf person, there is no natural sound. What we have instead is a soundtrack that plays for the entirety of
the film and which does an incredibly good job of capturing the mood of both the characters and the events in which they find
themselves. Although there is some (signed) dialogue, this is essentially a silent film and one that demonstrates just how
powerful this type of film can be.
Visually, the film is something unique. Much of it is shot at night and often viewed
through a camera or camcorder lens and giving the film a grainy feel that effectively adds an air of uncertainty to otherwise
familiar settings. This is especially effective when dealing with the stalker part of the plot.
Lexie Cannes is a very
real and very compelling portrait of a woman determined to surmount the obstacles she finds before her and build a life with
which she can be both comfortable and happy. The performances are strong throughout and these, combined with a strongly atmospheric
soundtrack and visual style, make for a film that is a powerful and moving experience.
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Lexie Cannes' TRAILER and SYNOPSIS on PulpMovies.com's "Trailer Park." (April 09) http://www.pulpmovies.com/trailers/lexie-cannes
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