The Film
A Blu-ray disc copy of The Amateurs arrived at our offices a couple of weeks ago for review. I hadn't actually heard of it before (less than $17M at the box office might have something to do with that) but its premise sounded intriguing: the residents of a small town rally together to make a porn flick. Hey, that sounds cool, I mean who doesn't like porn, right? And then when I saw the cast: Jeff Bridges, Ted Danson, Joe Pantoliano, William Fichtner, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Lauren Graham, Patrick Fugit, Tim Blake Nelson, etc., etc. I thought, "Hey, this can't be half bad, right?" Right!
Although the film got off (no pun intended) to a slow start, the characters were endearing, the story was reasonably compelling, and the plot twists and turns were actually not entirely predictable. I don't want to spoil anything, but although it's at times "saucy" the only thing "adult" about this film is that actual everyday adults might enjoy watching it, and might be able to identify with the characters in some small way.
In a sense, the film is a bit of an inside joke for those trying to make it in the movie industry - the character of the writer/director, "Some Idiot" (Pantoliano) is an under-appreciated idiot savant and the Executive Producer's self-described role is to "sit around, watch the film get made, and bring the talent some coffee." But it's what happens to the characters along the way, or more accurately what they make happen, that lends the film its charm.
The Picture
Although this is a 1080p transfer, the picture is quite soft. This isn't going to get any picks as a critic's reference disc. But maybe this too is part of its appeal. It doesn't need ultra-sharp hyper realistic detail to tell its story. The story speaks for itself.
The Sound
Like the picture, the audio is nothing to write home about. A standard Dolby Digital Plus track and a DTS track are available, but no uncompressed PCM, Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD. Even so, the dialog is clean and clearly comprehensible, and this is a dialog-heavy film, so that's important. But at many times the surround mix is distracting. I found myself looking around the room to see if something else was going on or someone had snuck in when I wasn't looking. But these audio distractions may have been intentional elements in the mix, lending the film a more amateur-ish quality as well as a scattershot, less focused sort of ambience.
The Extras
Although the extras are not extensive, the included Making-Of featurette is fun to watch. Apparently the cast had a 3 day sleep-over at Jeff Bridges' beach house in order to get comfortable with each other, and this certainly helped. The diverse cast of actors had a visible rapport and comfort level with each other that lent the film more credibility. Also included is a behind-the-scenes photo gallery, narrated by the photographer (Jeff Bridges) as well as the writer/director and producer), a commentary track and some trailers.
Final Thoughts
I hadn't heard of The Amateurs before seeing the Blu-ray Disc, but I'm glad I discovered it, as it is an entertaining and satisfying film which will have you rooting for the characters, hoping against hope that they will succeed despite their bumbling best efforts. Although the video and audio quality are nothing special, it's still an enjoyable film to own and I can imagine that it will improve with repeated viewings. All in all, an excellent first effort by writer/director Michael Traeger and a fun way to spend an hour and a half.
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