Review: Redlands

21st November 2013

By Andy Davies.

A small, nondescript city 63 miles outside of Los Angeles. Built around the thriving navel orange industry (thanks Wikipedia) of the early 1900s, it was once described as the “Palm Springs” of the next century. Sadly, the citrus industry declined in the area as more agricultural areas were replaced by subdivisions, and all three citrus packing houses had closed by the end of the 1900s…………bored yet? Sadly this is as engaging as ‘Redlands’, John Brian King’s directional debut that takes its name from this Californian city, ever gets.

The story centres around Vienna (Nicole Fox, ), an aspiring glamour model who supports her layabout, sexual deviant boyfriend Zack (Sam Brittan) by posing for amateur photographer and recent divorcee Allan (Clifford Morts), a man who’s autobiography reads like the NHS webpage on male midlife crisis.

Without throwing in too many spoilers, the more intimately you come to know these characters, the less it is possible to like them. They, along with all of the ensemble cast, have little to no redeeming features between them (with the exception of the rocking beards in Zack’s band). Nicole Fox turns in a decent enough performance but it sadly comes across as a route one option (alongside mental health, drug addiction and terminal illness) to gain credibility as an actress as opposed to a genuine character exploration.

This lack of any possible empathy mixed with a dispassionate single-camera-on-a-tripod shooting technique leave you feeling, well, nothing. Nothing at all. It’s not creepy, it’s not funny, it’s not interesting and sadly it’s just not very good. If it is intended as a comment on modern society then it is bleak and we are screwed!

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