Dandelion
Tags: romantic, murder

Plot synopsis:
In a small town of rolling fields and endless skies, isolated 16-year-old Mason Mullich lives in a world where families exist in fragmented silence and love seems to have gone missing. Mason lives with his mother, father and mentally ill uncle. Mason's father is a local politician running for office and is stern, and somewhat abusive towards his family, while his mother is submissive and dutiful, albeit unstable.
While resting in the grass one day Mason is approached by Danny, a sensitive and troubled girl. They strike up a tender friendship and begin to spend more time together. This bond is torn apart when Mason's father kills a man whilst driving and Mason is blamed for the crime. He is sent to prison for two years and upon getting out sees that Danny is now in a relationship. While they are both still attracted to each other, threats from Danny's possessive boyfriend and Danny's own perception of what she deserves pose a conflict.
Through time, they are able to overcome these conflicts and begin some semblance of a relationship. Though Mason's home life is even more unstable and unhappy than before, he find solace in Danny. Eventually on one of their walks they become intimate, solidifying their relationship. Later Mason, Danny and a friend go in a field to drink and have fun. Mason's friend brings narcotics and Danny decides to get high. Later that night she goes into the pond and kills herself. Mason, devastated is framed for supplying the drugs.

Review: I was at a film festival securing my seat for the movie that followed Dandelion, and so in turn had to watch it.
When I read the write-up for it in the program all I could think was, "Jeez, I have to sit through this really bad and boring movie to watch the movie I want to see" *sigh*.
For all of those who have yet to see this, the movie opens with a very teary Vincent Kartheiser placing a .357 in his mouth and pulling the trigger.
I like action, explosions, nudity, horror and just plain disgusting things in movies.
What this movie does have though is amazing sense of compassion and real life circumstances that draw the viewer (this viewer at least) into this hypnotic trance where you just can't take your eyes off of the screen.It makes me think of other movies that I was blown away by, American History X, The War Zone (Tim Roth's) and Niagara Niagara.
Dandelion included, I am amazed by how films can touch a part of you and make you realize certain things about yourself that relate so well to the characters in the film.Let me also say that every character in this film is played fully and believably by the actors portraying them.
The scenery from upper Washington and Idaho where it was shot adds so much to the film itself that I find it impossible to imagine this film being as believable and prolific if it were set anywhere else.We had a Q&A session after the film with producer, Molly and actor, Vincent.Two of the coolest people whom I have heard from in quite a while.
As they both should be.If you have any time or any ability to see this film either at a festival or in a theater or at home on DVD, please do yourself a favor and watch it.
Form the beautiful shots of Idaho fields to the perfectly understated acting, Dandelion is its own greatest compliment.
As well, for a movie of its length and bare bones story it is amazing that the film never feels boring.
Most directors would have felt like making Dandelion a short, but in its full length one can see its true colors.
Anyone who watches independent film will not be surprised by the plot, but the beauty with which Dandelion executes the simple story is a testament to artistic film making..
"Dandelion" is a hauntingly beautiful contemporary spin on "Splendor in the Grass," with pervasive forebodings of how the endless horizons of the American Western prairie can lead to claustrophobic traps.Debut director/co-writer Mark Milgard masterfully makes the long hot summer of the lovely Idaho and Washington landscapes redolent with both the magic of young love and the dread of violence in a very "Days of Heaven" fashion.
We certainly had no trouble thinking he was from another dimension in TV's "Angel," and here his emotive face and saucer eyes are Garbo-like to the camera.
No wonder Taryn Manning's "Danny" finds the scrawny sensitive kid irresistible even when a more conventionally hunky bad boy Shawn Reaves (of TV's "Tru Calling") is a rival (though the triangle plays out in an atypical fashion).
She sensitively exudes toughness and vulnerability, in a different way than she did in "Hustle & Flow," as she blossoms into what "Mason" sees in her.The parents are also atypically not inconsequential and the excellent acting by the adults ratchets up tensions (though a post traumatic stressed syndrome Viet vet uncle and a grief-stricken mime out of Springsteen's "Reason to Believe" are a bit too much).
Arliss Howard well captures a nice guy who nevertheless commits terrible emotional abuse on his wife and son.
Mare Winningham starts out as the usual tippling oblivious homemaker, but brings real feeling to the last part of the film, in both an explosion of frustration and of an almost pieta scene of sympathetically stroking her inconsolable son's hair.
The film well shows how the adults start to perceive their kids' feelings and how that powerful life-affirmation affects them.Even though what was obviously a minuscule budget necessitated no changes in hair styles or aging make-up etc.
to back-up the interstitial "two years later," the weather beaten buildings and exquisite settings of meadows, creek, endless road and railroad tracks and big sky of bright clouds and overpowering rain are an essential component of the story, though I'm pretty sure the title image only appears once.
While co-writer Robb Williamson's score captures the ominous mood and the indie rock song selections are illustrative, especially Sparklehorse ironically singing of a "wonderful life" and Cat Power covering Lou Reed, the visuals reminded me of a country song: "You know the world must be flat/'Cos when people leave town, they never come back." (from "Small Town Saturday Night" by Alger and DeVito, popularized by Hal Ketchum).There have been some other films lately dealing seriously with teens and parents amidst death and first love, including the suburban "Winter Solstice" and "Imaginary Heroes," but I was the most moved by "Dandelion." This is the most poignant, mature portrait of young people in rural America since "Tully" and "All the Real Girls.".
I actually cried a little during this film, and that's saying something, because I never cry during movies.
The Mullich parents, I think, had the best acting, especially Arliss Howard (Luke), since his character was very deep and complex.
Taryn Manning and Vincent Kartheiser acted their characters incredibly well, the realism of it all just blew me away.
"Dandelion" is one of those films that seems like a good idea, mostly because of other films it reminds you of.
In this case, the films it brings to mind are "Donnie Darko", "American Beauty", and particularly David Gordon Green's brilliant "All the Real Girls".
While director Mark Milgard, along with his two (!) other screenwriters, obviously had their hearts in the right place, the end results leave a lot to be desired.Cinematographer Tim Orr (who works on all of David Gordon Green's films), does a typically great job at capturing beautiful, Malick-like landscapes, but Milgard blatantly lacks the poetic touch needed to find an emotionally resonant story within the picturesque environment.
This is particularly sad in the case of the lead Vincent Kartheiser, who did good work in Larry Clark's "Another Day in Paradise", and seemed able to deliver here too if he had been allowed to not play up to his morose stereotype of a character.
In it's best moments, it recalled the great classic coming-of-age film "Over the Edge", as well as David Gordon Green's work.
But it is actually that last comparison which ultimately proves what a flawed film "Dandelion" truly is.
Where David Gordon Green's films always seem to unfold naturally, with no forced plot, "Dandelion" was full of contrived, obvious events.
Whereas David Gordon Green's films hit brilliant, unforced, emotional moments, "Dandelion" seemed intent on forcing you what to feel in the most obvious, unsubtle way.
This contrivance ultimately amounted to the film more closely resembling achingly self-aware trendfests like "Garden State" rather than the Green or Terrence Malick it seemed to be attempting.
In this respect, the dialogue was often particularly problematic as well.All and all, "Dandelion" is the kind of film I desperately want to root for, that I want to see succeed, yet it stubbornly insists on shooting itself in the foot at every opportunity it gets..
to me, there's few films that expose the emotional impact of words as detailed as this movie.
A different American movie about sad people.
It was a stormy dark day, a kind of weather which is also predominant in Dandelion.The Director was present and after the movie he told us a little bit about why he made the movie.
He wanted to show in what circumstances the teenagers in the Midwest grow-up, how sad there existence can be.I didn't fully agree with him, because I think you can also extract positive things from Dandelion, for instance that teenagers can be happy with each other, even when there parents are very unhappy.
So, to encourage Directors of these kinds of movies to go on like this, I gave a 9, instead of an 8..
This movie caught me off guard at the Sundance Film Festival.
This is an emotionally charged story that really lets you feel the emotion the characters are going through.
The cinematography is breath taking and is simply put one of the best films shown at the festival.
Wow, I just watched this movie for the first time and actually never heard of it before yesterday.
This is a beautiful but very sad movie, a hard thing to accomplish with this depth of emotion.
All the lead actors are at the top of their game, and the last 10 minutes of the film are an emotional roller-coaster.
My new favourite movie, "Dandelion" is a mind-blowing film from the genius first-time director and all-around fantastic person, Mark Milgard.
The movie is rich with symbolism so subtle that it manages not to slap you in the face with obvious, cheesy links between each character and/or event, all while still pulling everything together, leaving no annoying loose ends to tie up in the end.
"Dandelion" has already won awards from many of the festivals it has appeared in, and it's on its way to receive more awards all around the world..
The Film:is a melancholic love story about a young men living in a field with his parents, the love part starts when Mason Mullich (Vincent Kartheiser),is led down on the ground and a new girl, Danny Voss (Taryn Manning)move out to the field.
When everything goes great for Mason and Danny, Mason's father, Luke Mullich (Arliss Howard) hit a man on the road and kill him, when he realize what he has done, comeback to his home and take some things to buried the body, Mason ask him what is going on and if he wanted help, Luke try to tell him that everything is alright, that he just got stuck in the wheat dust because of the rain, but mason knows that he is lying so he decides to go with him and help him.In the place when the crash occur, Mason digs the wheel up whereas his father is in the car and when he falls down because of the mud he see a men covert with mud and try to make sure if he stills alive or dead, the he turns back and see his dad scare an he runs away with the car and mason is left alone there.
He never stop to think about Danny, but when he went out to jail and comeback to town, he found out that Danny was moved on and she was dating whit another guy.To end with the story, Manson comes back with Manson and when Danny's mom,(Michelle Forbes) notice that her daughter is falling in love, she decides that it is time to go to another place.
To end with the film, Manson kills him self in the same way of Danny.I think that is a marvelous film, there's nothing wrong about this movie, the music, the locations, the actors, the producers, the director, everything gets together to create this excellent love story with such a great twists.Definitely one of the best independent films that i have ever seeing and it worth to spend 93 minutes of your life to see it and analyze it..
A film about teen coming of age crap with a nowhere plot and boring characters.
Mainly, the scenes in this film are stale and loaded with stupid dialogue that has no comprehensible purpose to telling any kind of tale that is remotely interesting.
The movie attempts to be edgy by continually dancing around the visual of this kid putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger.
It seemed like the exact kind of movie I would LOVE.
Boy, was I disappointed.The movie was slow moving.
For one I didn't like the character and her acting just stunk!But I did enjoy the plot and the other actors were great.
I really can't understand why people keep making films that have basically been done before.
I'm not saying that this kind of cookie-cutter quality is enough to entirely ruin a film all by itself, but Dandelion's problem is that it has little to make it interesting.
The writing is almost pure cornball- characters wax about love and life in short, uninteresting conversations.
The performances given by the parents are by far the best parts of them film, in particular the stressful father with regrets, the only character in the film with much ambiguity about him.
By far the best aspect of the film is its cinematography.
Tim Orr, who you may also know from his work on the similarly rural (the unsimilarly fantastic) films of David Gordan Green, is good at shooting grass, air, and water and making it look great, though the nature shots appear too often for my tastes, seemingly between every scene.
At one point early on, on his first real meeting with the love interest, the main character says "I think love is something people make up to make themselves feel better." This is just about the most poignant or deep thing the kid, or any character, can think to say.
If you think this observation is the pinnacle of brilliance, you'll probably love the film.
It will also help if you really really like to watch wheat fields blow in the wind.Want a good 'troubled precocious loner' movie?
This was an absolutely, as someone else before said, textbook angsty coming of age movie.
The thing is I usually really like a good independent coming of age movie.
In fact, half-way through the movie, I had to stop, go to scene selections, and pick the last chapter of the movie to browse it to see if the movie got interesting.
It looked like it did although was pretty sure they were going to find a way to make it underwhelming anyway, which they did.
Another problem is that the person playing the girl looked too old for the character.
She is playing a 16/18 year old girl but her face looks like late 20's perhaps even early 30's.
Even Virginia Woolf had to weigh herself down with rocks so she could drown herself.Another bothersome event in the film was the fact that they just skipped the kid's 2 years in jail.
I mean they just completely ignored a great opportunity to build on the depth of his character, his relationship with his parents, and development of anything with Danny.
So in the end he is stupid and depressed which makes for a very uncompelling character.
The only thing I find no fault with in this movie is the setting.
I knew I was in trouble when the picture comes up and there's Vincent Kartheiser (better known as Connor from the Angel TV show); I knew I was in more trouble when, as he lay against an unending field of amber grain, he puts a revolver into his mouth and blows his head off.Dandelion is a long, boring, depressing film about boring, depressed kids stuck in the middle of the heartland somewhere (though blessed with the ability to walk for miles and miles in seemingly no time at all).
Kartheiser plays the mopey lead Mason, whose father (Arliss Howard) is perpetually angry and whose mother (Mare Winningham) drinks to cope.
The first forty-five minutes or so concerns itself with Mason covering for an accidental hit-and-run his dad commits (and no reason is ever given for the sullen boy's unspoken act of heroism.
He just does it, for no reason); and the second half of the film covers Mason's relationship with Danny (Taryn Manning), a girl almost as depressed as he because her mom (a bloated, blonde Michelle Forbes) moves around so much she has no roots and no sense of self.
Naturally these two bring some spark of happiness to one another; his parents almost seem glad, but her mother decides to move again, sparking, gasp, a conflict.I was surprised to see that this film ran only 93 minutes.
The pacing is so slow and the characters so lethargic and apathetic that it's hard to feel anything during the course of the film.
There's some gorgeous Midwestern scenery, but I think the filmmakers were going for bleak isolation rather than bountiful plenty.Not that most of you have even heard of this film (no accident there), but now that you have, avoid it.
You must by default have some better way to kill 90 minutes than to watch this film.
I absolutely loved this movie, but i understand why others did not.
Vincent Kartheiser and Taryn Manning are adorable and it is now my officially my new favorite movie.
The actors did a fantastic job of telling the story of these characters.
I guess I'm glad I did, even if the film really fails at getting beyond some rather simplistic coming-of-age poignancy.
but they have to add up to something."Dandelion" fails because the script really isn't meaty enough to warrant any in-depth resonance to these characters.
The cast does remarkably well with precious little, particularly Vincent Kartheiser in the lead role and Arliss Howard as his father.
Part of what I want to know is how these characters got here.
When the dad tells Mason he loves him in the graveyard, it's supposed to be a powerful moment, but comes off as pretty sophomoric.
what a cheap shot by the writers).Best scene: Mason, Danny and the dying bird.
But it doesn't really connect in any coherent way with their love and the rest of the film.The pace and cinematography are just fine.
There's great use of the landscape and pretty camera work, but I'm not sure it really adds much to have endless fields of waving grain.Ah, such beautiful emptiness.
The main character Mason has very little self worth, he goes to jail for a crime he didn't commit twice and eventually kills himself.
Still the film retains an ethereal quality like every sad story does.