BRAKING FOR WHALES (2020)


BRAKING FOR WHALES (2020)

Tagline: Where we're going we don’t need taglines. 

(Drama, Comedy, Unexpected Road Trip) [R]

Note: This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but likely would have landed a [R] just due to the language. This movie was made in 2019 but didn’t appear on streaming services until April 2020.

One of the many things that sucked about 2020, was the fact that a lot of flicks never came out at theaters or seem to have been secretly released with barely anyone hearing about them. BRAKING FOR WHALES was one of those movies and it might have been better for us all if they just hadn’t bothered with this thing. 

This one centers on a brother named Brandon and a sister named Star whose mother has died. Her last wish was that they would put her ashes inside a whale’s mouth, apparently because she had an obsession with whales. This is going to require a road trip in her old Winnebago because neither of them has any money to fly anywhere. If you recall, back in 2020, you didn’t have to take out a loan or win the lottery to buy gas. Anyway, both Brandon and his sister are massively dysfunctional and as it turns out they can’t stand each other.  

First off, the very first scene of this movie seems like a crazy oxymoron given the social propensities of Star. She has a weird attraction for George Bush that she acts out a lot (just to keep this review PG) only her views are clearly more “left of center” than you would expect for someone with this issue. Her brother is basically in a cult because he really actually hates himself and is just trying to keep it all together. Star brings him a sense of angst already, but sometimes they purposely just bash each other out of their own pain. 

All of this is handled with a bit of humor and a fairly whimsical script laced with dark humor and a score and soundtrack that sounds like it is specifically geared for emo college kids in the early 2000s. So that means it’s actually pretty decent. For some reason, we have a scene where Brandon and Star get to their first stop which is their mom’s sister’s house. Once there it doesn’t take long before things spiral out of hand and a lot of crazy accusations get made about her aunt Jackie who is played by Wendi McLendon-Covey (GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN). Jackie’s husband Randall does seem like a bit of a racist, but that isn’t the point of contention in the scene. The weird message in this is that if you are a Bush supporter you are a full-blown racist and also probably sleeping with the pool guy. This adds nothing to the story because there was plenty of drama between Star and Jackie even without trying to stereotype half the country. By the way – I am not a George Bush supporter. I just don’t see the point in adding this element to this particular scene when it doesn’t add anything to the script.

What works well in this movie is the cast. Tom Felton (RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES) takes on the role of Brandon and shows just an amazing amount of range. This is certainly not the best movie I have seen him in, but it is probably the best acting I have seen him do. We also get a pretty decent performance with quite a bit of range from Tammin Sursok (Pretty Little Liars) as Star. Admittedly I haven’t seen her in many films, but she is pretty good in this. Having said that, I really couldn’t stand either of these characters and really couldn’t stand anyone we see on screen. Yes, the movie's final scene is touching, but it doesn’t help this movie recover from just how terrible everyone is. 

If there is a silver lining in this film it’s that everyone seems to have been trying to make this script work, it just isn’t any good. It’s like GARDEN STATE with all 70% of the charm sucked out of it. 

I can’t really recommend this one but for quirky film fans that like movies that just have miserable people driving around and arguing for 103 minutes. This one gets a 3 out of 7 just for the performances. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF NARRATOR ENTERTAINMENT AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 





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