It’s been seven years since Alex Holdridge directed the Independent Spirit Award winning film In Search of a Midnight Kiss. His latest film, Meet Me in Montenegro, is about just that–a filmmaker who hasn’t made a film in nearly a decade. Coincidence? Not likely. The film unfolds like an autobiography for the director, who stars as an indie filmmaker desperately trying to break into Hollywood. Or at least make a film that can pull him out of the massive amount of debt he has accrued.

The film centers around a breakup between him and a girl named Lina who spontaneously leaves him during a stay in Montenegro. She ends up being his kryptonite because in spite of the pain she caused him, he still can’t get her off his mind. While traveling to Berlin for an important business meeting on his upcoming film, he unexpectedly runs into Lina and sparks begin to fly despite their better judgement. Eventually he must decide between his career or his love life.

Meet Me in Montenegro isn’t ashamed of showing clichés often found in movies, especially at the end where Holdridge flat-out acknowledges the movie-like ending. These meta moments are constant reminders that you’re watching a movie, occasionally removing you from the story. While Holdridge makes some huge advancements as a filmmaker, most noticeably in cinematography and editing, the story feels too familiar make a lasting impression. While Meet Me in Montenegro isn’t Holdridge’s best work, it’s welcoming to see him return to filmmaking. Hopefully it’s not another seven years before his next one.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss is an indie comedy romance story shot on a shoestring budget that was written and directed by Alex Holdridge. It’s a seemly simple tale of guy meets girl but keeps you guessing until the very end. Ultimately, it’s about growing up and becoming a mature adult.

Recently arriving to Los Angeles after a painful break up, Wilson (Scoot McNairy) to say the least, is lonely. It doesn’t help that New Year’s Eve is coming up and he would want nothing more than to have someone there to share a midnight kiss with. His roommate comes up with the idea of posting an ad on Craigslist for this problem. Wilson is reluctant and not very comfortable with the idea of online dating but is desperate enough that he agrees.

He gets a call from a girl named Vivian (Sara Simmonds) who agrees to meet him at a restaurant. Vivian is a self-proclaimed ambitious girl who comes off very demanding. She knows what she wants and will not settle for less. Although by the way she acts towards Wilson in the first 10 minutes of meeting each other, I’m surprised he stuck around.

It turns out to be the right decision to stick around because she does begin to warm up and you see a completely different side of her. I was actually quite impressed with the chemistry they seemed to have with each other on the screen.

Although, they do hit a few road blocks along the way, as he says something to upset her and she threatens to walk away from the date and thus walk away from Wilson’s plan to find that midnight kiss. For someone who hasn’t been on a date for 6 years, he is determined to not make that happen.

You can tell by the look of the film that the type of camera they used was extremely low budget. The dialog (mostly at the beginning) also felt low budget. What I mean by that is there are times were it is sloppy and delivered without full emotion. Most of the times these are rescued because you know the intent was realism, natural flow of conversations that are believable.

This explains how In Search of a Midnight Kiss joined the realms of The Station Agent, Humpday, and even The Blair Witch Project by winning the John Cassavetes Award at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards. In order to receive that award the film’s budget needs to be less than $500,000. I am guessing this one was shot for considerably less. Hard to fault it for the lack of money, perhaps with a larger budget they would have been able to afford better quality cameras, actors, etc. Bottom line is, the screenplay was there, the money wasn’t.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss is a wonderfully written film that isn’t quite your typical Hollywood chick flick because it is much more relatable and believable than those are. The mainstream audience may not be able to get past the low budget-ness of the film but that’s a shame. It’s worth it.