I really liked this quiet yet powerful indie, which I thought was extremely well acted, written, and directed.Riley Keough and Jena Malone give superb performances in their lead roles here. Keough portrays Sarah who's in an unhappy marriage with a workaholic husband, while devoting herself to her young daughter Jessie. Malone plays Mindy who is Sarah's best friend but which eventually develops into a sexual relationship between the two. The chemistry between Sarah and Mindy works exceedingly well throughout the movie, despite the fact that they are conflicted about committing to each other, and thus continue in their daily lives without doing so. Even years later, when Mindy is set to be married the powerful erotic and spiritual connection between the two continues.Overall, this is one of those films that caught me by surprise and if you like quiet indies that really grab you and are filled with realism, then this one may very well be to your liking. To note, there are several raw and explicit conversational scenes for those that are concerned about this in a movie.Korean-American filmmaker So Yong Kim ably handles the direction here, and co-wrote the script with her husband Bradley Rust Gray.

'LOVESONG': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A drama about two best friends that take an unplanned road trip together, along with one of the woman's toddler daughter. They then become romantically involved together, until one of them suddenly leaves. They then meet again, three years later, at the disappearing woman's wedding. It stars Jena Malone, Riley Keough, Brooklyn Decker, Amy Seimetz, and Jessie OK and Sky OK Gray. It was directed by So- yong Kim, and written by Kim and Bradley Rust Gray. The film had it's world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and it's gotten mostly positive reviews from critics. I found it to be a very beautiful, and exceptionally well made, love story.Sarah (Keough) is an unhappily married mother of a three-year-old daughter named Jessie (Jessie OK Gray). As she feels like she's starting to have a mental breakdown, Sarah decides to call her best friend Mindy (Malone). Sarah, Mindy and Jessie then go on a road trip together. As Sarah and Mindy talk more and more, they become closer and closer (in a very intimate way). Then Sarah's husband calls. As the reality of the situation starts to set in, Mindy decides to suddenly leave. This leaves Sarah heartbroken. The two best friends meet again though, three years later at Mindy's wedding.The movie is beautifully shot and acted. The characters definitely seem like real people, and as a viewer you feel like you can really relate to their love and pain. I think the film is an outstanding indie love story. It's pretty subtle and short, and it might leave some viewers wanting more, but I think it's a nearly perfect film. It's a great examination of relationships, and how people react to them. Malone and Keough both give great performances in it, and I think So-yong Kim makes a very good impression as a talented filmmaker to watch out for.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/WXRjz4hXVvs

Lovesong (2016) was co-written and directed by the Korean-American filmmaker So Yong Kim. It stars Riley Keough as Sarah, a young married woman who might as well be a single mom. (Her husband is away for months on business.) Sarah lives in a beautiful home, in a beautiful setting. She has a great daughter, Jessie, played at age three by Jessie OK Gray, and at age six by Sky OK Gray. (I assume they are the director's two daughters.)Enter Sarah's old friend Mindy (Jena Malone) who lives in New York City. They haven't seen each other for years, but they're still good friends. We get a sense that they're more than good friends, but director Kim is discrete about these things. After spending the night together, Mindy leaves for NYC. The women don't meet up again until three years later. There was a good movie in here somewhere, but it never made its way out. Both women are moody, taciturn, and passive. As an example, it apparently never occurs to Sarah that she could do more with her life than be a mother to Jessie, and wait for her husband to return home. How about leaving Jessie with a sitter and volunteering for a political cause or for a library? Nope. She just sits home, takes walks, and sulks.Mindy doesn't appear to have any thoughts at all. She makes an offhand comment about work, but she never says what she does and how she does it. She certainly has a gamine-like charm, but we don't see anything else to recommend her as a friend or as a person.This is the movie to see if you want a story about two attractive women who don't really connect with each other or with the world. Otherwise, find a better movie and watch that one.We saw this film at the excellent Little Theatre, as part of the wonderful ImageOut Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen.Lovesong is one of 22 films that had their New York State premiere, or their East Coast premiere, at ImageOut. My compliments to the ImageOut Programming Committee for their great success in bringing these films to Rochester.

I saw a screening of "Lovesong" at Sundance. When someone sees a film at the biggest film festival in the world, there are involuntary expectations that the film should be something extraordinary.During the screening, this film made me uncomfortable, disappointed, and even angry. The main characters were so unlikable and uninteresting that I couldn't find any moments of enjoyment. Their dialogue was about as complex as a patch of dirt, and their delivery didn't help. Nearly everything about the film felt as amateur as could be. The end of the film was much better than the dreadful beginning. Some interesting characters emerged and some more advanced forms of comedy were introduced. It wasn't until hours after that I started to think that the film could've been purposefully horrible. I couldn't fathom that a female director could make such shallow female characters. The film reminded me heavily of "The Comedy". "The Comedy" is about an unlikable man, or boy if you will, that embraces his "hipster" lifestyle and anti-everything attitude even into his late 30's/early 40's. The movie wasn't enjoyable to a large portion of its viewers. I loved it, but I can understand why. It made fun of a huge population "hipsters" very subtly, masking it's insults inside of unlikable characters. "Lovesong" is appearing to do the same thing, except the joke is on unintelligent women and loneliness that turns into lesbian relationships. "Lovesong" may be the worst worst film, or the best worst film. It just depends on if this film is a legitimate drama, or one of the best played jokes since "The Comedy".