What to say about Bellflower? I can’t speak for everyone and say that once you’re done watching this film it will stick with you long afterwards, but it certainly has for me. It’s hard for me to say I’d recommend this film because I can see people hating it, I could see people being appalled by it, I could see people enjoying it and never wanting to see it again, and I could also see people feeling the same way about this film as I do. I loved Bellflower. It was a film that touched on a lot of themes and it did so seamlessly while telling a story that kept you wanting more. It was exhilarating, it was haunting and it was breathtaking.

Bellflower is the story of two best friends who spend most of their days preparing for a post-apocalyptic world. Woodrow and Aidan’s vision of an ideal world is one where the world has basically ended and they rule with their gang, Mother Medusa, complete with their flamethrowers and their “bad ass” muscle car that shoots flames out of its exhaust pipes. It starts out with all fun and games, but Bellflower is the story of what happens when a girl is thrown in the mix and so much more.

Bellflower begins seemingly bland with bad performances and sub-par filmmaking, but past a certain point early on in the film it was as if the performers and the filmmakers (most of them overlap) had come into their own. The performances no longer felt amateurish, but instead were real. The direction and cinematography ceased to be dull and  went the way of brilliance. It was a film that literally morphed from alright to indescribable. The more I think about the film (and trust me I can’t stop), it might have even been intentional because of the constant shift in tone of the film.

If someone were to watch this movie and not like a certain aspect, I probably loved that aspect about Bellflower. There was so much for me take away here. I loved the intentionally grainy and archaic lens that the film was shot through, I loved the palpably awkward moments between some of the characters, I loved the portrait of adolescent ambition and angst, I loved the poignant imagery, but most of all I loved the vivid and enthralling story which constantly gave you the feeling that the events and characters colliding may very well lead to the apocalypse that Woodrow and Aidan so crave.

All this to say, Bellflower was amazing. It was a film that is not only great, but also inspiring in its creation. It was made on a shoe-string budget of around $17,000 and is a much better film than most of the films that come out these days that are made for millions. There’s truthfully something in this movie that is just magical, almost unexplainable. And it’s not just the fact that it was unique in both the story and the filmmaking. There was a true passion that went into the creation of this film and it shows.

Grade: A