Potato Dreams Of America: Review. By Jake Peffer.

Potato Dreams of America is the perfect example of a movie that has all the right intentions but unfortunately doesn’t execute everything that it wants to achieve. We follow a young boy nicknamed Potato who lives with his mother in the Soviet Union. He aspires of going to America as his life in the Soviet Union isn’t all too great.

With the help of Jesus Christ, Potato comes to the realization that he’s gay and is constantly bullied for it. His mother wants nothing more to provide a better life for Potato, so she becomes a mail order bride for them to make it out of the Soviet Union and move to America.

Director/Writer Wes Hurley tells a very personal story here as this is autobiographical. He puts a unique style in his storytelling which is arguably the best aspect of this movie. If only he could have put that style to better use throughout the entirety of this movie maybe it would have been somewhat more enjoyable.

In the earlier parts of the story everything feels like a stage play. Most of the sets and décor feel like something out of a local theater. It’s certainly different but makes things a little off putting when later in the movie we get actual on location sets.

I understand what he’s trying to go for in separating our characters lives in the Soviet Union versus how they are in America, but the choices just don’t feel earned. Once we get to America, we jump ahead a few years, so we have a different actor portraying Potato but then we also get a different actress playing his mother as well.

Not enough time has passed where they would need to have a new actress portray the character, so it seems like an odd choice. Also, both characters suddenly have Russian accents when in American versus having English accents when they lived in Russia. Again, I get what the director is trying to get across, but it just comes off as jarring.

All the performances are perfectly fine. Lea DeLaria and Jonathan Bennett are definite standouts but neither get enough screen time which is a shame. In the end, this is a personal movie that has some good things about it but for the most part just feels like too many missed opportunities.

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