For many of us the dreaded word "cult" brings up images of fanatical men hell bent on control and manipulation. For others, people like Charles Manson comes to mind. No matter how you slice it, whenever someone brings up anything to do with a cult, most of us get sqeamish. In reality however, not much of a difference exists between a cult and your favorite religion. Your boss may even embody "cult leader" like qualities, that allow him to effectively manipulate his employees into better work results. But why all this talk about cults? What's the relevance here? After watching "Raise Your Kids On Seltzer" I'm kind of wondering that myself. You see reader, the description, and even branding of this film implies a film focused heavily on... you guessed it... a cult. Or even the cult personality. In reality, writer / director Daniel Kremer delivers a flick that only loosely uses the cult phenomenon, as a distant back story for his main characters. Well, maybe that's not fair. The final act of the film does contain a de-brainwashing (deprogramming) session, that I thought resembled an exorcism... very cool... but even that is geared more towards an individual, rather the cult itself. Does this make "Raise Your Kids On Seltzer" a bad movie? Not at all. It just kind of kept me wondering when the more "cult-y" stuff was going to kick in. Half expecting that the next scene would fulfill my expectations. You may be asking why this was a bad thing? Simple really. My expectations acted as a counter balance, bringing me out of the film numerous times. All that aside, this was actually a well done film. I would even consider many parts and aspects of it quite slick, giving any larger budget counterparts a run for their money. Let the odd name make you stop and look, but let the quality keep you in your seat. Technically, there really isn't much to complain about here. "Raise Your Kids On Seltzer" generally offers up some nice visual candy. As far as indie productions go, as I wrote above, some more budget heavy productions I've seen simply don't stack up to what's presented here. This is all pieced together with a very slick edit that keeps the narrative flowing nicely, while showcasing the best aspects. What are they? For me it was a no brainer... the cast of course! Never did I feel like I was watching a scripted film. The lead characters came across as real and imperfect. Like all the real people I know in the world. If I sensed a part felt awkward, that awkwardness made perfect sense as the scene progressed. I truly believe the cast, supporting included, took the spotlight away from many technical or strange elements that may exist within the movie. What they couldn't hide however, was the slightly bloated feeling I had by the end of the film. Simply stated... it seemed a little long winded. This is a film that could cut out about 20 minutes, still be ontrack and still be considered a feature length film. To dig a little deeper, some cuts to a few scenes would actually elevate the film story-wise. "Raise Your Kids On Seltzer" contains a few scenes that simply have no need to be there. Maybe the intention was to expand Daniel Kremer's world a little, make it feel more real. The result however, was a slightly long feeling film. Rule of thumb, from what I've heard anyhow, is if it doesn't directly push the story forward... cut it out. Overall, this was a film that easily and fluidly surpassed the mediocre mark. I think if I didn't keep expecting more of a cult-like film, directly, I may have even scored it a little higher. The simple fact is that via the description, I kept waiting for something that never happened; which kept me from fully enjoying the movie. Branding and first impressions are so important and although it seems like a stupid thing to bring up, think of it this way. If you were a huge fan of pizza, and happened on a film titled: The origin of Pizza. Would you not be a little disappointed if the movie was about Henry Ford? All that aside, was it a good film? Yes. Would I recommend it? Yes. I would even go as far as to say I would buy myself a DVD. -MC
