While watching this film I first thought, "this Director of Photography should never make another film again." Then the characters drew me in a bit. That only lasted so long before I thought, "the Director AND Editor both should never work in film again." At the end of the movie I laughed comically loud at the fact that all of those roles were the same man. The story is one draft away from a really solid script. There are some overwritten writerly moments that took me out of the film. This tends to happen in most indie films because of filmmakers trying to be hip, or just generally trying to hard. Those moments were minimal enough that I could look past it and watch the film comfortably.The performances, sans one detail, are all very credible and deserve credit. Mary Kate Wiles and Nora Kirkpatrick do an excellent job. Whit Hertford does a good job as well, but the director should have reigned in the twitchy/blinky actor thing. No one looks around that much except nervous shady folks and Hugh Grant. The movie is only watchable because of two factors. The actors and… The score for the film is one of its greatest strengths. The man knows when to queue his music and what tone it should have to support the scene. He makes the painful decisions by Darst just a bit more bearable when combined with the performances.Another audio note, the audio mixer for this is absolutely terrible. There are peaks of overly loud music mixed with painfully low dialog. Overall there is no balance to the audio's levels.Darst needs to understand that lighting, color grading and lower ISO settings are your friend. It looks like he made enemies with them all on this project.The movie gets three stars; one for the script, one for the performances and one for the score. It deserves nothing else.

I was really impressed by this film. For me, the film evokes a rare sense of nostalgia. It's honest, sometimes joyful, sometimes painful story is shot and acted so purely that I could nearly feel the tires beneath me. As the couple's station wagon puts Los Angeles in the rear-view mirror, I was completely entangled in the exuberance of their budding romance. Their adventure was seamlessly woven against the backdrop of the California coastline.Maybe, it was the emotional ride that Director - Ryan Darst takes us on? Maybe, it's the actual ride that Oliver and Lily take us on? Regardless, it inspired me and left me wanting more.

Dreamworld is an engaging movie that drops you right in to the life of Oliver, an undersized and under-appreciated guy trying to choose between staying down to earth and following his dreams. It should take all of about 2 minutes for you to start rooting for Oliver.Enter energetic young redheaded girl -- his so called Magic Pixie -- and the journey begins. Lots of low key funny moments as these two get to know each other. It's the little things in this movie that make it great to watch. Great transitions between dialog and soundtrack, intimate camera work showing off the actors' expressions, and unexpected moments where the supporting cast gets a chance to shine and make all the characters in the story pop out as three dimensional. Keep an eye out for this movie, and for more from this team.

I absolutely loved and enjoyed this movie. The film is technically sound, the direction is superb, and it's beautifully shot. Every frame is wonderful to look at. The actors are so believable as their character/s that you almost forget you're not watching a documentary (almost). They're incredibly realistic and communicative with more-than-words - their language, facial expression; the story just lingers in their eyes.You can't not-watch every second, you want to keep going. Quite honestly, I wanted more at the end - I wanted to explore more, I wanted to know 'what next'. However, I was immensely satisfied and happy with how the film left off - it was a perfect ending without being that 'too perfect' of an ending in the unrealistic sense - it's perfectly satisfying, to where a 'sequel' might ruin the way you feel about the characters and their situation/s.The story and the characters are easily related to without being stereotypical or cliché. You feel for them, you know them. They're so.. tangible.. by the end of the movie, that you feel like you've known them for ages. The story is wonderfully told, from all sides, and unbiasedly so. The visuals flow so nicely, the soundtrack is a great flow as well - they pair up so naturally you almost feel like it they were built around/for each other.I had not one complaint about this movie. After the screening and Q&A at the Florida Film Festival, I was able to speak to others in attendance, and I wasn't able to gather one complaint from any of them, either. This is an excellent film, certainly worth the watch, if only to see that there will be more from this cast and crew.