Jupiter Love

Editor's note: This is the last review Sam will post at DVD Town. It's on to grad school and film studies for him, and we wish him well and thank him for the work that's he's done for us. JP

I´m always perplexed when watching the end credits of a film that purports to be independent yet has a lengthy list of production people. Many are the ways to define independent, I suppose, but in my mind, the Australian drama "Jupiter Love" is an example of real independent cinema.

It´s a crap film, but that´s beside the point at hand. Point is, when the credits roll, there are only a few names--stars Michael Andre and Nikka Kalashnikova (thank heaven for cut and paste) who also wrote, produced, shot, edited, directed and lit the whole thing. A couple of other folks loaned them cars and gave other minor assistance. It´s admirable that these two conceived and executed a full-length motion picture, even if the result is 80 minutes of nauseous sight and sound.

Andre stars as Chromosome Y and Kalashnikova as Chromosome X. That in and of itself is noteworthy. It suggests that these people are not fully developed characters, but rather pawns for a didactic game. Indeed, Y and X are less individuals so much as the two sexes stripped bare of any personality, conscience, wit and all those other traits that make us human.

I suppose that could be taken as a sort of compliment, that Andre and Kalashnikova are reaching for a deeper truth about human interaction, but when Y is pure id from the word go (his first few lines of dialogue are all animal noises), it doesn´t make for a compelling character to watch, especially since Andre´s acting is amateurish.

Kalashnikova fares better as a character and as a performer. We get a sense of who she is--an artist on her way to her first solo exhibit--before Y enters the picture and begins to ram her car. From that point on it´s less about these two individuals and more broad, ineffectual commentary on the sexes.

The DVD back cover says that "Jupiter Love" is an "allegorical descent to the raw nerve of male sexual-psychosis," which to me is nonsense dressed up as pseudo-psychological babble. True enough, the dialogue in the film mostly amounts to long-winded, improvised rants from Y and cackling from X. I counted exactly one instance of subtle commentary: a piece of art from X that shows a woman´s nipple stretched to a point. There´s something to chew on: an image that juxtaposes sexuality and violence. It´s far more interesting than a kooky lead character shouting "Why won´t you love me?" for several needlessly long scenes.

Since Y begins to bump X´s car by the 10-minute mark, I wondered how the remainder of the film would play out. The answer is that it plays basically the same scene several times over. For reasons that aren´t explained, X frequently drives long, dusty backgrounds where Y always manages to find, chase and generally harass her. It makes for a tedious viewing experience.

Editor's note: This is the last review Sam will post at DVD Town. It's on to grad school and film studies for him, and we wish him well and thank him for the work that's he's done for us. JP

I´m always perplexed when watching the end credits of a film that purports to be independent yet has a lengthy list of production people. Many are the ways to define independent, I suppose, but in my mind, the Australian drama "Jupiter Love" is an example of real independent cinema.

It´s a crap film, but that´s beside the point at hand. Point is, when the credits roll, there are only a few names--stars Michael Andre and Nikka Kalashnikova (thank heaven for cut and paste) who also wrote, produced, shot, edited, directed and lit the whole thing. A couple of other folks loaned them cars and gave other minor assistance. It´s admirable that these two conceived and executed a full-length motion picture, even if the result is 80 minutes of nauseous sight and sound.

Andre stars as Chromosome Y and Kalashnikova as Chromosome X. That in and of itself is noteworthy. It suggests that these people are not fully developed characters, but rather pawns for a didactic game. Indeed, Y and X are less individuals so much as the two sexes stripped bare of any personality, conscience, wit and all those other traits that make us human.

I suppose that could be taken as a sort of compliment, that Andre and Kalashnikova are reaching for a deeper truth about human interaction, but when Y is pure id from the word go (his first few lines of dialogue are all animal noises), it doesn´t make for a compelling character to watch, especially since Andre´s acting is amateurish.

Kalashnikova fares better as a character and as a performer. We get a sense of who she is--an artist on her way to her first solo exhibit--before Y enters the picture and begins to ram her car. From that point on it´s less about these two individuals and more broad, ineffectual commentary on the sexes.

The DVD back cover says that "Jupiter Love" is an "allegorical descent to the raw nerve of male sexual-psychosis," which to me is nonsense dressed up as pseudo-psychological babble. True enough, the dialogue in the film mostly amounts to long-winded, improvised rants from Y and cackling from X. I counted exactly one instance of subtle commentary: a piece of art from X that shows a woman´s nipple stretched to a point. There´s something to chew on: an image that juxtaposes sexuality and violence. It´s far more interesting than a kooky lead character shouting "Why won´t you love me?" for several needlessly long scenes.

Since Y begins to bump X´s car by the 10-minute mark, I wondered how the remainder of the film would play out. The answer is that it plays basically the same scene several times over. For reasons that aren´t explained, X frequently drives long, dusty backgrounds where Y always manages to find, chase and generally harass her. It makes for a tedious viewing experience.