Movie Review By: Bryan Fox / RealTVfilms.com Blogger
Jay, played with tons of debutant charisma by Andy Cisernos, has got a lot on his plate in the Bronx. A hard-nosed, hard-working father who wants him out of the house because he won’t pay to support another ‘parasite’ after his brother is dishonorably discharged from the Marines and sent home from Iraq with a burgeoning alcohol problem and raging PTSD. A girl who falls for him against apparent odds but needs someone to lean on when her grandmother, her only real family, passes away. A jittery thug from ‘round the way with monomaniacal designs on a pair of new kicks Jay procured in exchange for letting a guy from up the block store a crime-used van in the gas station garage where Jay works the night shift. And some Harlem ‘hoods with whom he seems to cross paths an inordinate number of times in a city of 8 million after a random altercation during a house party at the film’s outset ends in chest-bumping and a quick, foreboding flash of steel. Got all that?
If there’s one significant shortcoming to “Shine On”, it’s simply that the film threatens to cave in under the weight of its myriad subplots. Perhaps a slick, one-hour drama slotted in after “The OC” could address in two seasons what this film attempts to cover in just under 110 minutes.
The movie is not without minor flaws as well. There are a few too many cinematically timed rainfalls (any number greater than zero generally being classified as ‘too many’ in this category), and several occasions where the soundtrack, comprised largely of pleasant –enough acoustic songs written and performed by Cisernos, tells us exactly what to feel – “I like you”, playing over and over when Jay and girl Alessandra (Jenna Deman) share their first kiss, “What a day for dying young”, the portentous refrain before the climactic fight scene (so portentous, in fact, it basically gives away what’s going to happen).
Th
send to friend
add a comment