Review of Indigent 4 Film DVD Collection Box Set

Introduction

The Indigent film group are behind a range of Indie films including a variety of the top Sundance Festival titles. This collection features four film from their archives brought together on a 2 disc feature.

The films included are:
Final, Ten Tiny Love Stories, Chelsea Walls and Tape from acclaimed indie directors Campbell Scott, Rodrigo Garcia, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater respectively.

In Final Dennis Leary awakens from a coma raving about having been cryogenically frozen and all manner of bizarre experiments. His psychiatrist, a young inexperienced female doctor helps him to recover his memory but are things what they seem?

Ten Tiny Love Stories recounts the tales of ten women, the men in their lives and their stories involving them.

Chelsea Walls tells 5 stories based in a single day within the walls of the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. Featuring a strong ensemble cast this film covers the various tales of the range of characters and the events which shape their lives on this day.

Set entirely within a room in a seedy motel, three friends recall the final days of high school in Tape. Things however are not all good it seems with one of the friends admitting the date-rape of one of the others ex-girlfriends…only for her to later show up.

Video

Final: The picture on this I found to be slightly soft, kind of as though the focus is just slightly out. Whether this was intended mind you I`m not sure, either way it is kinda annoying.

Ten Tiny Love Stories: While the picture on this was clear and concise the films ultimate problem is there`s not a lot happening. Basically the entire film consists of static camera shots while the women tell their tales.

Tape: Tape looks and feels like a play, indeed it is based on one funnily enough. The film is shot entirely on lower quality handheld cameras and all the action takes place in one rather small room so it`s not much in terms of visual splendour. The use of smaller cameras does allow for some more interesting angles at least but some of them are rather awkward.

Chelsea Walls: The quality of this film is the highest of the bunch, crisp and free of grain. It`s certainly the most professional looking also in terms of camerawork and in particular lighting and moving shots.

On both discs the menu`s are again nothing fancy but functional.

Audio

Final: Sound on this one is average but adequate. Dialogue is clear and concise though the music lets it down; instrumental music is used quite sparingly in the film and consists mostly of bland guitar riffs.

Ten Tiny Love Stories: As this film consists purely of women talking about the men in their lives the sound in this is mostly pure dialogue with the odd guitar riff (do I see a pattern forming?) used in the introductory sections.

Tape: As with the camerawork the audio in the film is deliberately low quality. The sound echo`s somewhat due to the confined nature of the set and low quality audio equipment making it the poorest of the four films. As with the others there`s not much in the way of music either.

Chelsea Walls: Again it`s a case of functionality over flash but then that is the trademark indie style after all! This is the best of the 4 in terms of audio however featuring some atmospheric background music and good quality recording in general.

Features

There are unfortunately no Special Features at all; instead you are getting 4 films squeezed onto 2 discs at a budget price so you can`t gripe too much! Still some extras would have been nice such as a director`s commentary etc as I usually find the smaller films to have the more interesting ones.

Conclusion

You tend to either love or hate indie films, some hate the lack of flashy effects, others prefer the fact that the scripts and stories are at the forefront. Generally though if you like good quality acting, strong scripts and interesting stories then indie films are more likely to be what you`re after. I must admit though, I`m usually more of a flashy effects kind of film watcher but I don`t mind the odd bit of something different to spice things up.

The films are quite a strong bunch, though the inclusion of Ten Tiny Love Stories kind of stands out, it doesn`t really fit in with the others; though it is quite interesting it`s definitely the weakest of the bunch. Final is another case of nice try but it doesn`t quite manage to pull it off despite some good acting by Dennis Leary, you`re left wanting somewhat by the film. Tape`s claustrophobic set and low quality video and audio are offset by some very good acting and screenwriting. Chelsea Walls is the most professional of the bunch with an impressive all-star cast. The main problem with Chelsea Walls though is that it sometimes tries to tell a bit too much, its fast paced switching in between stories can confuse but it`s still a pretty good film nonetheless.

So there you go really, if you like indie films you`ll absolutely love this collection. If you`re looking for state of the art CGI then don`t even bother picking up the box, if however you like the focus to be more on the cast and storylines rather than the effects then this is for you and for this price its definitely a good deal.