If you’ve been following my reviews for a while, you will have noted that I rarely, if ever, do a negative one. This, however, does not mean that I do not occasionally stumble upon movies that fail to impress me. Sometimes when that’s the case, I just opt to write nothing at all about them.
I had high expectations for Clay Jeter’s 2011 film Jess + Moss. When I saw its trailer and read several reviews, I could hardly wait to see it. At first, I thought that my expectations would be met. The film opened with brightly colored scenes and the subjects were filmed with good geometrical proportions and composition that, being an amateur photographer, made an impression on me. Even the credits were done in a creative way, thus further boosting my expectations. Yet, thirty minutes later I was so bored by the lack of any real plot development that I doubted my patience would suffice to finish the whole film. But I persevered with the hope that there might be a break even point somewhere or a surprising plot twist that would turn the dreadful story into one of those challenging, yet intriguing, Coming-of-Age films. But, alas, that did not happen.
The two protagonists of the film are an 18-year-old girl named Jess (Sarah Hagan) and her 13-year-old cousin Moss (Austin Vickers). They spend their summer on a neglected farm somewhere in rural Kentucky. We observe them as they ride bikes, climb trees and generally do the things we commonly associate with the hot summer days of our childhood vacations. The parents are missing and the memories of them are the link that allows the viewer to get an idea about the cousins’ characters, as well as provide some insight into the unique relationship between them. The plot is largely devoted to these memories of the past and their reflection on the present and the future of the film’s protagonists.
Warm colors conveying the summer’s hear in Jess+Moss
Yet the narrative, which some reviewers called “experimental” and “non – cohesive”, ruined my viewing experience by being completely irksome. It’s true that there are those days of the summer that are long and hot, and during which nothing really happens. And if the idea of the director was to have the film’s viewers relive that experience of sitting around waiting for time to pass, he definitely succeeded in that endeavor. But I find it hard to like a story that lacks any semblance of plot development or a meaning — or at least provoke in me the desire to seek for one.
None of the reviews of the film I have read have succeeded in helping me to justify the time I spent watching this movie. Sometimes I will see a film and fail to understand its story. An example would be the Canadian film The Nature of Nicholas – which only made sense after I read some interpretations by some film critics and discussions about the film in the comments sections on various sites (including this one).
In short, then, I feel that I can not recommend Jess + Moss to you.
Film title: Jess + Moss
Also known as: Джесс + Мосс
Release year: 2011 – Blood River Pictures, Liquid Crystal Productions, Love Streams Productions
Director: Clay Jeter
Cast: Austin Vickers, Sarah Hagan , Marie Coleman, Donald R. Fleming and others