Miss Meadows (2014)

i've never reviewed a movie on IMDb before. i review them on my facebook page when i feel the urge, but i'm supremely unqualified to do so. although what the qualifications would be, i don't exactly know.

first, let me say that black comedy is a category which seems to impact me and stick to me longer than nearly any other genre. and i'm a sucker for the unreliable narrator as well and they usually go hand-in-hand.

when i say this movie was brilliant, i have no proof of it, no one single detail which would qualify it, but i do know it held me enthralled from beginning to end. and yes, there were a couple of rough patches where i thought the script sort of wandered off track, but then, i didn't write it, so it might well have been exactly what they intended and that one scene or two or an exchange of dialogue just didn't resonate with me.

i completely understand this genre is not for everyone and the comedy goes right over the heads of many people--too many things seem to do so these days.

i apologize for the wandering 'review', but i just think it deserves 2-3 stars more than the IMDb is showing as the average. don't let the slightly low rating keep you from watching it.

/guy

Fmovies: If you like dark comedy ... this is your movie.

If you like a surreal plot line ... this is your movie.

If you just want something 'different' ... this is your movie.

Katie Holmes as Miss Meadows brings the characters sweetness, vulnerability, and cruelty to life. And the supporting cast is just perfect in their roles.

Not a film for 'the average' viewer! Art film buffs will be highly entertained.

9 out of 10 stars for me because --- there was (for me) a bit of a slow part --- but I still greatly enjoyed this flick.

I went to see Miss Meadows - I loved the film for a number of reasons. creepy, quirky, poignant, really funny and atmospheric. miss meadows reached me. Katie Holmes was amazing in her portrayal and one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes is the one about Anthony played by Billy Mumy where everyone is in agreement with the little boy for fear that he'll wish them into the corn field. miss meadows captured that eeriness which I relish but then the raw underbelly of her pain is revealed and with her, writer director, Karen Leigh Hopkins has created one of the great and memorable characters of the screen. seriously. not patronizing. amen.

Miss Meadows fmovies. Miss Meadows (Katie Holmes) is a nice prim substitute grade school teacher on the outside but she is something more underneath the facade. She kills criminals on the side and talks to her mother (Jean Smart) on the phone. She starts dating the local sheriff which conflicts with her extra-curricular activities. The sheriff gets suspicious but asks her to marry him as soon as she tells him that she's pregnant.

Filmmaker Karen Leigh Hopkins has filled this with a lot of quirkiness but none of it is funny. It doesn't work as a black comedy. All the quirky keeps the movie from going truly dark. There is also a lack of intensity especially considering the killings. This should be either much darker or more surreal. This feels like it's a step away from being a good interesting movie.

The idea of a saccharine sweet, Mary Poppins-esque school teacher leading a double life as a gun-toting vigilante is a great starting off point for a subversive black comedy.

Unfortunately, "Miss Manners" never gets very far past this strong basic idea. It's not funny enough to work as a black comedy, not interesting or dynamic enough to work as a straight character study/drama, not weird or brave enough to work as a David Lynchian suburban fable and not exciting, action-packed, or shocking enough to work as a cult/horror/fun/late-night/midnight madness type movie. It seems to be kind of aiming for all of those targets, but ends up hitting none of them. The result, despite the promising premise, is a very bland, vanilla, and ultimately pretty uninteresting movie.

Katie Holmes is perfectly fine in the leading role and seems to pull off this kind of character very well. The problem isn't her or her character but the fact that they really don't give her very much to do or really any interesting obstacles to face.

The story unfolds very predictably and we don't get any kind of dynamic examination of this main character beyond the reveal of her very cliché and completely expected back story.

It all feels very paint-by-numbers, very black and white, and ends up feeling pretty tame. A movie like this needs to have real teeth and attitude behind it and this film really has zero of either. The main character is never put in any interesting moral predicaments or forced to make any tough choices, and that's really an essential element in a story like this one.

Like I said, I really liked the set up and concept of this movie and even the introduction of the film;s main character--but was ultimately disappointed with the bland and lackluster way they were handled.

A tap dancing vigilante may seem an impossible idea to turn into a comprehensible script but somehow Karen Leigh Hopkins makes it work. The opening sequence of the film makes it clear that Miss Meadows (Holmes) is no ordinary school teacher cum vigilante, with victim number one clocked very early after the title sequence. Holmes does a great job of making Miss Meadows seem the epitome of eccentricity, with, apparently, carefully created, precisely drawn and meticulously manicured manners, even at the point of the kill.

Throughout the plot are moments of blissful dialogue intertwined with pauses, telling looks, and, it has to be said, the incongruous, but it does hang together if you stick with it. There are continuity blunders in more than one scene, and occasional poor editing, but these do not stop the film from being surprisingly engrossing. The acting is rather good too, especially from James Badge Dale (the Sheriff) and Ava Kolker (Heather). There are memorable scenes like dancing to an unseen and unheard accordion in a field which make this film a little like an old fashioned fairy tale or a fable, but the message is totally adult in content, and should leave you thoughtful by the end.

A film like few others which is going to be underrated and under exposed. It is better than it will score on places like 1Mbd.