Review: Southern drama ‘Moss’ underwhelms, but it has great views
The realty value mantra “Location, location, location” could also be used to express what’s most worthy — and distinctive — about writer-director Daniel Peddle’s otherwise underwhelming coming-of-age drama “Moss.”
North Carolina’s lovingly shot Pleasure Island and adjacent Cape Fear River provide the stirring, Southern Gothic setting for this impressionistic film that unfolds around the 18th birthday of its rudderless main character, Moss (Mitchell Slaggert). Given the script’s basic dialogue and narrow characterizations, it’s fortunate that there’s such an evocative locale to help us further imagine the lives of the film’s idiosyncratic folks.
Although his dullish voice-overs attempt to establish him as a deep thinker and observer, Moss outwardly comes off as anything but: surly, cocky, needy, slackerish, immature. That he’s played with limited range and affect by fashion model Slaggert, in his acting debut, doesn’t help. (And really, where’d Moss get that ripped bod, Gold’s Gym Pleasure Island?)
The story tracks Moss as he meanders through a few pivotal days, interacting with his isolated, wood sculptor father (Billy Ray Suggs); off-the-grid, weed dealer pal (Dorian Cobb); and the pretty and provocative Mary (Christine Marzano), a 30-year-old hiker who introduces Moss to apple bongs, shrooms and sex. Why she shares a name with Moss’ mother, a hallowed soul who died giving birth to him, feels as randomly symbolic as anything else in this sluggish if earnestly authentic tale.
-------------
‘Moss’
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 21 minutes
Playing: Starts Friday, Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills
See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour »
Movie Trailers
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
