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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Lbs (2009)

Lbs. (2009)
Director:Matthew Bonifacio
Status:Screener Review


WARNING: This is not a horror review. Breath in and out, it will be okay. But what I have for you today is a cute independent movie called Lbs.





Neil (Carmine Famiglietti) is the token fat guy in his family. He has no problem with the way he looks until he realizes how much he is affecting his family. When his sister (Sharon Angela) has to postpone her big wedding because Neil has a heart attack. Not to mention he has the heart attack while he is driving a bus full of little kids on it. I'm not going to lie I laughed pretty hard at that part, I can't help my sense of humor. He worked for his father so his father had to fire him for the incident. Anyways Neil then attends his sisters rescheduled wedding, which turns into a complete disaster. Her new husband is very upset with Neil because he's doing nothing at the wedding but eating all their food. He calls him out about his food addiction and a huge family fight ensues leaving Neil depressed and needing a big change in life. So Neil decides to pack up some of his belongings and head out to butt fucking Egypt to lose the pounds. His best friend Sacco (Michael Aronov) tags along the way to help him out, also fighting his own addiction with drugs (mainly cocaine). The two men begin on a journey to recovery out in their purchased trailers out in the backwoods of a new town, needless to say neither of them make out very well. Neil and Sacco are doing pretty good for awhile taking in the fresh country air, cooking outside in their little fire pit, playing their own make shift sports, and just hanging out. Meanwhile back home his parents (Susan Varon and Fil Formicola) are in a state of panic not knowing where Neil has disappeared to, and how he's doing. Neil and Sacco soon begin scraping about their addictions and it leads to one final fight where Sacco up and leaves, leaving him the message "you do it your way and I'll do it mine". Neil now having no one becomes friends with the man (Eric Leffler) who sold him the land and trailers and a woman (Miriam Shor) who works at the local diner as a waitress. She informs him that she's getting a divorce from her husband and starts hanging out with him all the time. In short she ends up banging him, he falls in love, and she moves out of town with her husband. Neil left all alone besides his friend Lee who watches out for him occasionally, he starts going a little bonkers but continues his venture to lose the pounds. He finally comes back to town a new man, but with a new problem.





Anyways the main focus of this cute independent film is addiction. Addiction to food, addiction to drugs, etc. Everything that he accomplishes seems to go downhill in the end. He becomes a bulimic, loses his best friend, and realizes that everyone around him are shallow assholes. He was once happy and comfortable with himself and now he seems miserable and lonely. I mean shit Bulimia and being over weight can both kill you, so it's somewhat of a lose-lose situation for him. To sum up the ending, it's pretty depressing. He see's everyone he hasn't been acquainted with for awhile and everyone is happy to see him, but he's not happy with himself. So I guess in his case it's one of those "did it all for nothing" things. I like this movie though it shows someone who gets pushed over the edge and finally decides to do something about it. And it shows as Lee Dawkins quotes "Even if you've changed don't expect that anyone else has". So there's quite a few underlying messages to be found in this movie. I'd would also like to mention that Neil's Character is a dickhead in the end when he does nothing to help out his friend. I mean if your best friend turned into a homeless bum with not even a pair of shoes to wear, wouldn't you do something to help them. It really irks me that he just has some crazy hallucination and then walks away, but it does make for a cool type of scene.






Because it's me reviewing this movie, I have to point out that there's actually a creepy scene where he's dreaming that his mom is in his trailer cooking Christmas dinner for him. I mean it's the lighting, music, and the way the actress is talking that makes it extremely eerie. She reminds me of Annie Wilkes in the scene just the way she's lurking there and it's lit like a scene from "Parents". The mention of the peppers and sausage made me want to vomit on myself, two foods I do not like. Just would like to make a correction Carimine Famigietti actually did lose the weight over the filming process, which is pretty amazing. He slimmed down a lot by the end of the movie! Carmine Famigietti is a fantastic actor, especially in the scenes where he's going crazy and becoming a little schizophrenic. He shows emotion in facial expressions extremely well, and it makes you feel for him. But don't be fooled he can portray mean when he wants to, hence the scene where him and Sacco end their friendship. Also his sisters husbands character is a good one to comment on. Anthony (Lou Martini Jr.) puts on a great performance as the only person not fooled by Neil's "diet" antics. Truth be told he's sneaking out and eating at a pizza parlor and having Sacco sneak him in twinkies and such (After he has the heart attack). After Neil comes back and has lost weight you can tell that Anthony is genuinely proud of him. All in all Lbs is a pretty smooth running movie that's well made and has a nice little story about fighting obesity. I say that because in the end he's at the meetings and you feel like he's going to get help.

Would also like to mention quickly that Lbs has a really nice website as well, you can visit it at www.lbsthemovie.com

3/5 stars

2 comments:

  1. Ah... I worked on the movie and I can assure you, that was NOT a prosthetic. Carmine lost the weight as the movie was filmed, which is why it took over a year to get made. Just thought you should know that. Good review.

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  2. WOW, I can't believe that! He lost that much weight after a year! I can go back and correct that. I had no idea!

    And thank you William!

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