Shakey Grounds

"No matter how bad your life might seem, we're all just living in shakey grounds."

Director: Michael Garcia

Shakey Grounds is a drama that while it mainly focuses on the story of a musician trying to cope with the death of his best friend, it does a solid job of focusing on other characters and their arcs and journeys. The premise goes in different ways I didn't expect it to, which very much exceeded my expectations. It's not a biopic or a mockumentary, but it plays one on TV. Instead of showing a band fall apart, the fictional Cuticles kind of start that way, and their journey feels different from others in the genre. Shakey Grounds excels with its authenticity of its characters and the music, which really gives the movie it's own sense of style. I also really dug the commentary on the modern artist's relationship with social media.

There is such a raw emotion to the film and you can really relate if you've lost someone to addiction. The best pieces of art are always the ones that evoke emotion.

There are a few songs in the film crafted by the hip hop group ¡MAYDAY!, which as a fan was dope to see.

Travis has a bit of a Cobain complex, starting the film at rock bottom. Eric Nelsen portrays Travis' journey with a raw edge but underneath it is a sweet dude who you can't help but root for.

Mel is awesome and she doesn't sugarcoat things. With a "spicy" personality that Ella Cannon portrays nicely, she also balances it with a nice heart and development.

And speaking of ¡MAYDAY!, one of the members Bernz aka Bernardo Garcia makes his film debut as Clint and he freaking kills it.

In his feature film debut, Director Michael Garcia infuses Shakey Grounds with his own sense of style that can only come from a past of directing stellar music videos. He uses that to craft a story that is entertaining and one I would recommend.

As this appears to be the director's first full-length feature debut, the shots were well-planned, and the coloring and production music were engaging. The storyline aimed to be both emotionally resonant and humorous at times; however, it came across as somewhat unoriginal and forced. The characters tended to be somewhat cliché, and the moments intended to evoke an emotional response did not fully succeed. I found it somewhat ironic that the ending, which humorously critiqued romantic comedies, was itself quite predictable, much like many romantic comedies tend to be. Ultimately, writing a compelling story, developing a line-by-line script, and assembling a full-length film is a challenging process. This film represents a commendable first effort for the director and is a body of work to be proud of, given the scope of the project.

This movie seems like it was made by film students. The plot is meandering and it seems like nothing was planned out. It's good to see Eric Roberts, but I don't know if he read the script beforehand or if the producers just ran into him at a bar at LAX and convinced him to join the cast. You get the impression that the people making this feel like they have something really important to say, and that they're making the next Citizen Kane. Ultimately though, you can see a better executed music plot in the B-story of random network dramas. I wouldn't recommend, honestly would have rated it a zero if I could have.