Clay, Michael and Andrew are fascinated by a yearbook from Chico High's class of 1990 that they discover at a Value Village. Intrigued by the cryptic word "Caduceus" emblazoned across the cover, and by the countless sweet mullets and dream girls inside, the three friends lock onto one particular student: feather-banged mystery man Timothy Truelove. When the guys discover tickets for the 20th reunion available online, they can't resist the temptation to crash. This is hands down the most awesome road trip you'll ever take from Portland to Chico, California! Will they get busted by the Reunion Committee? Will Truelove show? What the heck does "Caduceus" mean anyway? The documentary equivalent of a John Hughes movie, Finding Truelove is an exuberant comedy that pays homage to all things '80s-from Saved By the Bell to Howard Jones to Back to the Future-with pure energy and heart.
I should probably begin by saying that even though I am going to be quite critical of this film, I am still going to acknowledge that the filmmakers are still quite young and seemed pretty happy that the film got into a film festival and was actually shown to people. Plus, they gave out free hot dogs in the ticket holders line.
Finding Truelove is obviously a very amateurly-made documentary. To say that the documentary doesn’t take itself serious is probably a bit of an understatement. In fact, I thought that it was a very juvenile film. Also, the filmmakers noted that they essentially had to reedit the whole film in 72 hours after a hard drive crash and I am sad to say that it really looks like it was.
Let’s take a break from criticizing the filmmaking and move on to the film itself. So, these kids find an old yearbook from 1990 in a thrift store and they are completely in awe at all the people in the book. They are especially interested in one particular individual named Tim Truelove. In a moved that could be considered crazy by some, the kids decide to crash this particular high school’s 20 year reunion and meet (and film) these people in person, with Truelove being high on the “too see” list.
I have to say that the very juvenile way these kids made the film made me cringe many times and I have to admit I actually considered walking out a couple times. However, my interest was peaked when they reached the town, where the reunion was being held and actually met some of these people. It might just be because the film was edited that way, but these people in their late 30s/early 40s did not really seem to mind that a bunch of kids 14 years younger than them had not only crashed their reunion, but was also filming the experience. I definitely say that it was quite a bit surreal.
Also, the film was filled with popular music from the late 80s/early 90s. This is actually by biggest fear about the film after it finishes its run through the festival circuit. While it’s cool to include all these songs in the movie, in the end the rights will probably cost more than the film itself. As such, unless the film gets a distributor that covers the cost, I’m not that optimistic about this film has much of a lifespan (in its current form at least).
I’m going to be quite lenient with my final opinion of the film. Even though the film was badly made, very juvenile, and generally not my cup of tea, I’m going acknowledge the weirdly interesting story and how I’m sure that the filmmakers were happy the film even got screened at all.
7/10
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