C.O.G.

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

After seeing this flick I was lost to it's message, but knowing there is a message to be had. I have never read the essay from which the story is taken ... so I'm seeing this movie through unveiled eyes. What I see is a young man whose background is built upon an upper class controlled academic life who has idealistically thrown himself into a world of lower class marginally educated street wise laborers, to fulfill a dream he and a girlfriend(?) have cooked up to help him escape a family conflict. David is an innocent, yet sure the world is very like his book knowledge. Almost from the start he discovers otherwise. He is described as cocky and arrogant - not so. He is self assured and unafraid to speak his mind as we see on the bus and then with the girl that has deceived him by backing out of 'their plan'. David sticks with it and encounters a world unlike any he has experienced in his polite society upbringing. Certainly being polite and charming will win friends! He finds himself a loner, no friends, not even able to communicate with the Hispanic laborers he must work with. When he does find people to be friends or rather friendly with, he discovers they only want to use him (packing house man) or are seriously mentally unstable (the wildly fundamental Christian). Director Alvarez has chosen to leave the plight of David open with the closing of this movie .... you can fill in the blanks! Notice the expression on David's face as he passes the camera walking alone on that country road .... he's made a decision! This is a very good movie!

A rueful, seriocomic D. Sedaris memoir minus D. Sedaris—his unique authorial voice and his unmatched ability to see his goofus younger self as others must have seen him—doesn't sound like it would have much going for it, but "C.O.G." is actually a pretty good film. David, an East Coast grad student estranged from his family and otherwise at loose ends, has been persuaded by a flighty friend that this would be an excellent time for him "to get his hands dirty" picking apples in Oregon; when a tough-looking apple packer (Dale Dickey) says she'd like to "knock that f—r union rep from here to Tokyo," David asks brightly, "Have any of you actually ever been to Japan? It's a beautiful place." Clearly David's going to have some problems adjusting to life in the Hood River fruit-growing region. Writer-director Kyle Patrick Alvarez was well advised to lose the traditional coming-of-age-film voice-over; DS's unpredictable and thoroughly engaging storyline works perfectly well on its own, and the unSedarislike Jonathan Groff does just fine as David. Good work by all concerned, in fact, especially Corey Stoll and Denis O'Hare as strangers with candy. The Steve Reich percussion pieces are a little distracting at times, but mostly used to good effect.

As written in the instruction, this story starts out with a college(?) student, with a lot going on in his head, heading to an apple farm. The overall images and colors used were beautiful (although there were no graphics). Plus, in someway, the movie powerfully overwhelmed the viewer's emotions. However, as for me, its main idea is nontransparent and irresponsible. First of all, it is hard to understand the director's main point. There are too many messages in this film. From its beginning till end, it is filled with new topics in constantly changing environment. It concerns problems like family, education, love, society, identity and religion, each and every of them very sensitive and emotionally powerful. I was soaked in by those and the main characters feelings. However, as I was about to concentrate on one on them, it moved on to another. Second, even though one can figure out the film's point, it does not take any responsibilities. It just leaves out everything in the open, and does not give a closure. Although I admit that there can be a method of letting the audience think, this movie makes them feel hollow. What I mean is that, what good are any messages if they do not mean anything? It would be as meaningless as someone who is blaming one's problems rather than suggesting a solution or at least trying to find one.