The Tribes of Palos Verdes (2017) Reviews

• Sad Slice of Life

  Moviegoer192017-12-10

  Another reviewer referred to this film as "cruel." I think a better word is "sad." It was quite well done. Despite anticipating the brother's demise, I was moved to tears at the end. The film did a great job of showing the complexities of being in a nuclear family in the 21st century, though, to be honest, I wasn't sure of the time frame until Facebook was mentioned. In most films that take place today the cell phone plays a major role and in this film it didn't, though they did Skype. Anyway, Jennifer Garner is usually not a favorite of mine, but her acting in this film was excellent as was Maika Monroe's. The complex emotions exchanged by the members of this broken upper middle class family were realistic, palpable, and multi-dimensional. For example, it would have been easy to simply hate the father (Justin Kirk) for falling out of love with his wife and leaving his family for another one, yet one scene in which he explains himself to his daughter, bore some truths which made me feel empathy for him as well as the others. The story was presented with depth which is what made it successful, in my opinion. It's not a happy film, or even particularly hopeful, but it is a realistic slice of life and engrossing.

• Cruel and Real

  BasicLogic2017-12-04

  This is a very good movie, people and characters in it are all look real. The broken marriages to so many families nowadays in almost every country of the world not only affected so many husbands and wives but also seriously messed up their children. America's social infrastructure is like a broken and shattered glass, so many broken families, so many toilet relationships, so many twisted hardship that kids have to deal with their parents' bad marriage. America has become a weird family tree, its branches and leaves so complicated, either the wives carried their kids to new marriage, or the husbands brought their kids from his first, second or even 3rd marriage to newest wives, while their newer wives or husbands also got their own kids from their former marriages. More divorces simply complicated the family tree's growth and burdened it to unknown, unpredictable and unfathomable abyss. Kids growing up from such broken families many have twisted views almost to everything that ensured them to repeat the same or similar situations of their own marriages, their relationship to their opposite gender. They would become a bad copy of their parents and usually, the 2nd or the 3rd copy will be always worse than its 1st edition. This is a very cruel but up close and personal film that I could hardly be able to watch to the end. I pity the three young children from two different broken families. The hardships they have to deal with 24/7 are so cruel and unbearable. I felt so sad while watching it and couldn't resist thinking of my elder son's broken marriage, and the grandson jammed in between his mother and father. The hardship my son has to deal with everyday is beyond every word could be described. This film is just too cruel to watch.....

• Unrelenting Melodrama is Far From Entertaining

  larrys32018-04-15

  The Mason family has just moved from Michigan to the exclusive community of Palos Verdes, California. There's the noted heart surgeon father (Justin Kirk), the emotionally troubled mother (Jennifer Garner) and their extremely close twin siblings (Maika Monroe and Cody Fern). The film is narrated by Monroe's character Medina, as they all settle into their palatial home overlooking the gorgeous Pacific Ocean. However, all is not idyllic in this family, as we actually watch them deteriorate before our eyes. The acting is solid all around but I found the story led me on a depressive and mean-spirited slog, with the parents particularly despicable here as they manipulate their teenage kids for their own purposes no matter what the cost. Without giving too much away here, the cost will be very high. Overall, some may find this unrelenting melodrama to their liking but for me it was a difficult view and far from entertaining.

• Depressing Coming of Age flick at the Sea

  hovengadoman2018-06-16

  The tale of a failed marriage. dysfunctional family and drug use are what greeted me on this already depressing winters day in Australia. This could have been an Aussie movie with it's deadpan lead actress (Monroe), deadbeat Dad, OTT Mum and drug stuffed brother. Overall a bit too realistic for my taste but I like the sea and there was plenty of that!

• Gilded gates open to a hollow homelife

  troy-boulton2018-10-01

  Strong performances from the core cast save this slow-moving and moody family affair from being irredeemably trite. You've seen this film before, but maybe not this cut of it. Echoing the aesthetic tone and much of the slower interstitial pacing of the 90s thriller Point Break, this coming of age divorce melodrama shines light on the emptiness of the idealised American Dream, showing that money most certainly does not always add richness to one's life. Shadows of evolving tribal bonds flicker on the walls - family, friends, allies, enemies. Who is which? Is blood thicker than water? Is loyalty more important than happiness? Can a morality tale masquerade as a post-modern narrative? Whatever the case may be, Palos Verdes somehow keeps the action, and the answers to these questions, somewhat detached and at arm's length. Despite the decent cast, none of the characters, through all their travails, are sufficiently compelling to be celebrated or mourned. Not great, but not bad. Worth a watch if you are hard up for something to fill 90 minutes.