From the opening moments of the 70's era AMERICA, SO BEAUTIFUL, the Reel 13 Indie from a couple weeks ago, the disco music envelops me in the mood, embraces me like an old friend that I haven't seen in years and I am somehow immediately hooked in for the ride that is the film. During those early moments, the filmmakers also adopt a seventies era style of filmmaking, particularly during the dance sequences – fisheye lenses, split screens, etc. All this helps to establish the illusion of the period.
Though the flashiness dies down as the film goes on, the direction is confident and strong throughout – consistently good choices in terms of the camera work, design and blocking. If there is a problem with AMERICA, SO BEAUTIFUL, it would be in the screenplay itself with its flat dialogue, meandering narrative and over-the-top approach to its message against prejudice. The film is about Iranian immigrants in Los Angeles during the 1979 hostage crisis, which is a great premise, in theory. Even in practice, the film wisely avoids heavy-handed politics for most of the piece, instead focusing on the characters' desire to survive and assimilate and also the Americanization of the younger generation, which comes into conflict with the traditions of their native culture and their elders. All this stuff is great, but as we move towards the conclusion, the message starts to rear its ugly head and it interrupts the momentum of the story. The one, long night that pretty much dominates the entire second half really sinks the rhythm they had created (there is one unfortunate scene in a diner in which the filmmakers inexplicably abandon any sense of subtlety that they seemed to have had for most of the way) and the climax could have been a lot stronger if they had turned down the amplitude of the speech-giving just a tad. While I understand they felt compelled to show dissatisfaction and disillusionment amongst their Iranian-American protagonists, they needed to be much more subtle about it. Frequently a suggestion is better than a speech. Perhaps the screenwriters felt that their "point" wasn't clear once they got to the end and decided to really hit us over the head, just in case we weren't able to read in between the lines of the first three-quarters of the film. The result for this viewer was that I felt condescended to.
Fortunately, this is ultimately a minor hiccup in an otherwise effective glimpse into the lives of Middle Eastern immigrants. The acting, direction and cinematography are all quite good. Despite a handful of small bumps along the road, the film is balanced, fair, honest, complex and therefore, interesting.
(For more information on this or any other Reel 13 film, check out their website at www.reel13.org).