Bass Ackwards

Bass Ackwards follows a man named Linas on his cross-country journey on trying to figure his life out. Linas Philips is not only the star in the indie film but he also directed and co-wrote the script. It is hard to call Bass Ackwards a comedy, although there are a few scenes that are worth a chuckle, it is more of an adventure drama.

It starts off with Linas in a relationship that is less than perfect. It is clear that he likes her but unfortunately for him, she is already in another relationship. As if that were not bad enough, the friend he is staying with seems to be fed up with him. Evident that the living situation is far from ideal, he seeks to start over by making a cross-country trip to New York.

The main purpose of Bass Ackwards is Linas searching for affection and attention which is reiterated throughout the film. This is first seen through his girlfriend in the beginning then through his temporary job working with llamas. He demands rhetorically that the llama must say it loves him before feeding it. All he wants is love and to the point of near suicide.

Although I understand the film is about the journey, it gets repetitive to see the same basic shot of the VW van he is in coasting along the interstate over and over. They add up to be a lot of what you see during his trip. Cutting out at least half of those cuts may have kept Bass Ackwards more interesting.

Another thing that bothered me a little bit was when he called his dad from his cell phone to pull a prank on him, his dad did not seem to know who it was. I know it is a small deal but obviously his dad’s cell phone would have recognized the number, as it did several times later.

The film briefly picks up when he wakes up from sleeping in his van to a man tapping on his window. The man named Jim (Jim Fletcher) asks if he could come in and sit in the front seat. He obliges and the two become fairly close as he allows his new friend along on the trip.

That character had potential and could have really taken the story in a completely different direction but it was a little short lived. Jim leaves Linas after the two seemed to have bonded well. Linas does run into a couple minor issues after that, mostly running out of gas multiple times before finally running into Jim again near the end.

Towards the very end Linas, now reunited with Jim again, runs into his girlfriend he had left behind. He is ultimately forced between his new-found friend Jim or his old girlfriend. It is then we see if the journey across the country has helped him get over her or if it has made him miss her even more.

I am always impressed when the main actor is also the director and in this case, also a co-writer. However, even with this admiration, I still cannot recommend this film to most. The camera work is well done and the acting was not poor but this indie film as a whole was lackluster. It was an adventure that at times could have went somewhere great but ended up being mostly dull.