Gunpowder Heart; Grade: D
Man oh man I've been tired lately.. But the train keeps on rolling CHOO CHOOO! We're back at the SXSW Amazon Prime collab virtual film festival once again, talking about Gunpowder Heart.
Gunpowder Heart tells a story about two friends Claudia (Andrea Henry) and Maria (Vanessa Hernandez), whom were enjoying a lovely night at one of those cheap carnival sites. The fun ends as Claudia and Maria were grabbed, as they attempted to raped them. Luckily one of the employees at the site, interrupted their evil plans as the boys stopped as the girls ran away. Maria gets a hold of the gun her mother gave to her awhile back, as she plans to murder those evil boys.
Well let's look at the positives. I felt the Cinematography was shot nice, may not be as nice as Le Choc Du Futur's, but at least it's better than the other previous film selections. I also found the performances to be solid, Andrea Henry and Vanessa Hernandez both had good performances as the leads. I think my only issue with their performances is the chemistry, I didn't believe in their romance for one second, could be the scripts fault if we're being honest.
The positives end here, as I honestly did not like this film much at all. I think the film tone wise is a bit of a mess, it goes from a revenge story which if they stayed on that road, could've been a better film. But then the film becomes a weird romance, I say weird because the way it's developed makes absolutely no sense. Like listen before we're introduced to this intense make-out scene: Claudia and Maria we're fighting with each other... Like I'm talking Claudia throwing rocks at Maria fighting. Plus Maria tries to kill one of the rapists, as she totally screwed the entire thing up, so I don't understand how these events can lead to such an intense romantic scene, it doesn't work at all. I found the romantic side of the film to be absolutely ridiculous, I don't believe in their connection one second. Like Claudia is having future plans with this girl, talking about running away to the States... HUH?! In the beginning it looked like they were just causal friends, what inspires Claudia to have these over the top romantic ideas of hers?! It's poorly developed, in a way that makes it look absolutely blasphemous.
The romantic side of the story is not even the worst part of the film, the worst part is Maria starting to like this random guy, which is easily the worst character in the entire film. It takes such a very odd turn, causing Maria to act like a psychopath, as you're trying to puzzle in what the hell is going on?! I think the revenge aspect of the film is incredibly weak, but it's due to the fact this film wants to focus on other things, that are either irrelevant or damn right unnecessary to the story. Now I don't know what kind of laws they have in the country they’re set in, but the whole thing with Maria getting access to bullets and shooting at a gun range is absurd. Like the man whom runs the shop tells Maria you can't purchase bullets without certification, then Maria just lies to him that it's for his dad, and then he just lets it slide?! What kind of stupid employee is he?! He's the same guy that lets Maria shoot at the gun range... HOW?! I felt the ending was just bad as a whole, it kind of made me laugh as I thought the entire thing was just ridiculous. I felt if this film got rid of these unnecessary side plots, that it would be a much better film, because there is a couple nice aspects to it. But honestly... Eh.
Overall, Gunpowder Heart is a bad film, so far the worst film of the festival. I don't recommend this film at all. -Mitch Smietana