The Beatnicks is an kooky, shambling little indie that I can't really say whether or not I liked, because not much of anything happens the whole time. The filmmakers have obviously tried hard to capture the quaint feeling of the beat generation, whether or not they succeeded though isn't for me to say, I kind of avoid stuff in that style, never appealed to me. It's a strange little story concerning Nick Nero (Norman Reedus) and Nick Beat (Mark Boone Jr), two aimless wandering performers who are down on their luck and desperate for a gig. Most of the film is just them wandering around, pontificating on life and art and not much else. Reedus clashes with mysterious night club owner Mack Drake (a slick Eric Roberts) over the affections of his moll-esque girlfriend (Elodie Bouchez), whilst Boone gets handed a series of arbitrary, cryptic tasks by enigmatic stranger Hank (the underrated Patrick Bachau). And that's it. There are pockets of the film filled with nothing but air, places where they've tried to stretch 'not much' into 'a whole lot' and have caused their creative well to run dry. In a film about beat poets who I imagine spend most of their time filling up time and space with constant stream of consciousness output, dead air isn't a good thing to have lingering around in your story. An odd duck of a film that didn't really chime with me, but some may find it worth a gander.
Review of The Beatnicks
