STARRING
Jacob Motsinger, Christopher Alice, Kristi Engelmann WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
Christopher Showerman MPAA RATING
NR RUNNING TIME
102 Mins. DISTRIBUTED BY
Indican Pictures
"Radio America" Picked up by Indie Distributor Indican Pictures
Jacob Motsinger and Christopher Alice star as Eric and Dave, two farmers dreaming of a better life in music whose dreams start to come true when the two appear in a local music competition and before long the two land put a band together, land a contract and begin enjoying all the spoils of family before, as one might expect, it all comes crashing down in fairly dramatic ways.
Written and directed by first time helmer Christopher Showerman, Radio America is a fairly straightforward semi-cautionary, semi-inspirational and semi-entertaining tale that covers familiar territory done in a far more satisfactory manner by any number of Hollywood and indie cinematic productions. This doesn't mean that Radio America is a waste of time - it's not. For a low-budget indie, and I have to add that disclaimer here, it's a decent enough effort indicate of some solid talent in Showerman for constructing a story and bringing it to life. Unfortunately, the story's actually the weakest part of Radio America, a fairly paint-by-numbers story with paper thin character development and an emotional climax that feels hollow given the lack of emotional resonance throughout most of the film.
The music in Radio America doesn't particularly help as it's difficult to buy into Eric and Dave's seemingly overnight success given that their tunes don't really stand out.
Of course, I still can't explain the whole Justin Bieber thing.
Among the key players, relative newcomer Christopher Alice shows the most promise with a performance that is emotionally honest and seemingly always on the edge of something awesome if the script wouldn't keep letting him down. Motsinger's not quite up to Alice's level, but the two enjoy a nice chemistry and that may very well be enough to keep you watching.
Radio America is the kind of film that may very well open doors for Showerman, not because it's a brilliant film but because it does a decent enough job of showing how much he can do with so little. A film that you'll likely want to like far more than you actually do like, Radio America is a promising debut from Showerman and one can only hope he lives up to that promise in future projects.
