Such a frustrating disappointment

Great Film overall

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

"Iowa", the movie, premiered in New York City at the TriBeCa Film Festival on Monday night. The movie addresses the scourge of the methamphetamine (aka crystal meth, crank, speed) plague that is ravaging Iowa and many rural states; however, in no way does the movie glamorize crystal meth or its users, abusers, addicts, or manufacturers. Iowa graphically shows the horrors of the dead-end street named crystal meth. Iowa should be mandatory viewing for all high school seniors, who would certainly be "scared straight". At the same time, Iowa makes a powerful statement against the so-called War on Drugs, where Draconian punishments have only fostered the growth of a fungal industry of private prisons, drug-testing companies, and other parasites.Iowa was filmed on location in Centerville, Iowa, and environs. In his youth, Farnsworth visited Centerville to see his grandparents, the late Beryl and Thelma Farnsworth, and was stunned witnessing the hellish degradation crystal meth had wrought on the bucolic community. The movie features many scenes from the Centerville Square ("the world's largest square"), the streets and alleys of Centerville, the reservoir, Lake Rathbun, Mystic, and the countryside, as well as the appearance of many local denizens as extras.The TriBeCa Film Festival was created by Robert Di Nero and associates in 2002, primarily to bring life back to lower Manhattan after 9/11. "TriBeCa" refers to the triangle below Canal Street, and lies near the southern tip of Manhattan. The movie theatre sits catty-corner from the old World Trade Center site. Walking west on Vesey Street, one passes a huge hole, several square blocks in area, the remains of the WTC towers and the place where 3,000 innocents were slaughtered on September 11, 2001. The sky was spitting some frozen pellets of precipitation on April 25, as a cold wind blew off the water. A few gin martinis followed by a steak dinner helped to ward off the chill.Yet no bracer in the world could prepare a viewer for the full-bore assault that is Iowa, the movie. Quentin Tarantino, move over; there's a new sheriff in town. Matt Farnsworth, the writer, director, and star of Iowa, makes Quentin Tarantino look like a little girl dressed in pink ribbons and bows with frilly ruffles on her underpants. The comparison most often heard after the movie was to Tarantino, director of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and the Kill Bill flicks, but there is far more depth to Farnsworth's work, and this makes it soar high above Tarantino's.While comparisons were also made to David Lynch, especially in his symbolism and his ability to frame pictures of idyllic small-town life interspersed with scenes of dystopian debauchery and depravity, Farnsworth's closest similarities lie with a New Yorker. Farnsworth is something of a Plains Woody Allen, both in his multifaceted roles (multitasking, in the current lingo) and in his abilities to capture the zeitgeist of a certain place and time and to delineate characters of the moment—but only if Allen had testosterone oozing from every pore, snorted a quarter-ounce of crank up his nose, and sported the handsome visage of wholesome milk ad model.Farnsworth stars in the movie as Esper Harte, a young Iowa man struggling to keep food on the table and a roof over his head. Esper, whose father has died recently, is the beneficiary of a $200,000 life insurance policy that he will receive if his father was not on drugs at the time of his death. Esper is dating Donna (Diane Foster), whose father is the insurance agent responsible for investigating Esper's father's death. Esper hopes to take the money, marry Donna, and, together, leave Iowa to find greener pastures. Esper and Donna's labors to protect their love form the core of the plot of the movie.Farnsworth, who may be known to some viewers from his TV work on 7th Heaven, gives a performance that is tour de force; he clearly is the "next big thing" to come from Hollywood. Foster shows a luminous presence that captures a viewer's full attention whenever she's on the screen, yet she is not just a pretty face, and displays the full gamut of emotions through her facial expressions. Michael T. Weiss is outstandingly evil as Larry Clarkson, a corrupt and sadistic parole officer. Amanda Tepe is a bewitching drug-and-sex fiend. Other notable performances include those of Rosanna Arquette as Esper's mother and John Savage as Donna's father. Andrew Parke, the director of photography, deserves special mention for his loving pictures of southern Iowa.The audience in New York City, a "tough" audience if any ever were, audibly gasped at the movie's shocking denouement, and then applauded enthusiastically at the movie's conclusion. As the lights went up, we saw that Farnsworth and Foster were in the audience, and they were soon swarmed with well-wishers and glad-handers.Iowa is a movie that will haunt your daydreams and nightmares for years to come. Every scene, every word, every note, rings true. Iowa is a movie you must see.

Although I wouldn't say this is the best movie I've seen, I thought that it did drive home the addicting and devastating effects of meth production, sale and use. The acting, for the most part, was captivating. I've lived in Iowa for almost a year now, and some folks have been worried about the perspective this gives of the state. I think that the movie really could have been placed in any rural community and still drive home the point. Quite honestly, I think that without the sex scenes, if this movie was shown to junior high school and high school students, it would quell any curiosity to try meth (particularly, I think, the tweaking scene and its aftermath). I still think "Requiem for a Dream" is a better movie that talks about the effects of dreams and the use of drugs to attain those dreams, but I have recommended this movie to many friends as a must-see movie.

Tasteless. I can't even write intelligently about the movie. I laughed the entire movie. It wasn't supposed to be funny. Matt Farnsworth has no clue what he is doing. His story is written, it seems, without any knowledge of Iowa culture and the meth problem. I know Farnsworth is from Iowa, which makes his movie even more puzzling to me. Why do the two main characters have accents? It doesn't make any sense. The acting was mediocre at best and at times hard to watch. Gratituous violence and sex filled the movie. I am guessing that the violence and sex were supposed to make the movie edgy, but it came across as unbelievable and offensive. The ending of the movie is so brilliantly bad that all I could do was laugh and look at the rolling credits with disbelief. As I walked out of the theatre everyone else who was leaving was laughing along with me. The ending of the movie was meant to evoke tears, but it did the exact opposite. Do not waste your time on this horrible movie, unless you want to see ignorant, sappy, overacted, clichéd drivel.

I'm shocked that there were people who liked this movie..I saw it at Tribeca and most of the audience laughed through it at scenes that were not meant to be funny. I felt bad because the lead actress was in the audience, but honestly the plot to this movie needed MAJOR revision..it didn't even make sense, one second the characters question what exactly it is that they're snorting..the next scene they're hopelessly addicted and figure out how to make it?? Also the ending just took the cake..I'm not going to spoil the magnificent conclusion..but it pretty much blended right in with the rest of the horrible plot/script...see this movie for comedy if you must..