Garden Party (2007)

10% of critics liked it
(20 reviews)
28% of users liked it
(2,284 ratings)

Filmmaker Jason Freeland draws inspiration from the eponymous song for this tale of five lost souls attempting to navigate the treacherous urban landscape of contemporary Los Angeles. April is an ambitious beauty in search of success, but can she learn to get by and keep on her clothes at the same… More Filmmaker Jason Freeland draws inspiration from the eponymous song for this tale of five lost souls attempting to navigate the treacherous urban landscape of contemporary Los Angeles. April is an ambitious beauty in search of success, but can she learn to get by and keep on her clothes at the same time? Sally St. Clair is a sexy realtor with a secret past. She's got a great eye for spotting lost souls, and thrives on giving them direction in life. One of those lost souls is Nathan, her new assistant. Nathan moved to Los Angeles from Nebraska seeking to find success as a dancer, but now most of his time is spent making photocopies for Sally and her clients. One of those clients is Todd, a porn-addicted artist who agrees to help Sally get revenge for a past indiscretion in exchange for her helping him realize his greatest fantasy. Meanwhile, as starry-eyed street musician Sammy moves in with Nathan, the new roommates both have disparate ideas about the direction their relationship is headed, and everyone involved becomes hopelessly ensnared in Sally's kinky entanglements. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Jason Freeland
Written By: Jason Freeland
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: May 30, 2008 Wide
On DVD: Nov 18, 2008
Studio: Lionsgate

Critic Reviews

Peter Debruge, Variety
Their lives eventually intersect, but in more or less arbitrary ways.
Kyle Smith, New York Post
Slow ride to nowhere.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
A low-rent answer to Robert Altmanâ(TM)s Short Cuts.
Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
If we're meant to take these threads as a tapestry of L.A., then Freeland clearly needs to stop watching Robert Altman DVDs and go outside to see what the real world is actually like.
Kam Williams, NewsBlaze
Paints a convincing, if dizzying picture of Tinseltown as a dangerous den of iniquity that eats away at one's optimism until you capitulate and become just as jaded and hardened as the vultures who have made a career out of preying on the naive and needy.
Todd Gilchrist, IGN Movies
Freeland's film offers a poor man's Los Angeles opus.
Jeff Bayer, The Scorecard Review
This ensemble piece works if you know Los Angeles. After all, it's very possible for a homeless kid, pot-smoking Realtor, young model and a number of perverts to cross paths in that town.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Cinematical
Sophomore writer/director Freeland doesn't quite feel like the host of this particular "garden party," but rather like the party's Sabrina, secretly spying from the sidelines.
Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine
Oddly, halfway through when Freeland strains our credulity even further, the film finally feels fresh
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
A bit like Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), taking a look at a cross-section of Los Angeles characters, though it runs less than half the length and, conversely, half the depth.
Eric D. Snider, EricDSnider.com
The characters aren't interesting, and the stories toggle between tawdry and ridiculous.
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
They're not a likeable bunch, to be sure, but the bigger problem is that there's little resonance to their stories.
Scott Tobias, AV Club
It's a production in search of a movie.
Marcy Dermansky, About.com
Willa Holland is the one good thing about Garden Party -- not because of her performance (which is neither good or bad) but for that nostalgia she evoked in me for young Fairuza [Balk].
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A dreary drama about a group of selfish and amoral characters whose lives intersect in Los Angeles.
Geoff Berkshire, Metromix.com
A blandly pointless roundelay of bad acting, forgettable characters and flat drama.
David Fear, Time Out New York
There's neither brilliance nor bite to this look at innocence lost. Next time, go Nathanael West, young man.
Doris Toumarkine, Film Journal International
A fatally fractured, disconnected mosaic of unappealing, marginal Hollywood types haphazardly interconnecting.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Christopher H

Garden Party has the feel of a made-for-TV look at life in Los Angeles. The actors and actresses that we've grown accustomed to seeing in the passenger seat are given semi-leading roles. Vinessa Shaw is sexy and sultry, allowing for the possibly the only stand out performance of… More
Garden Party has the feel of a made-for-TV look at life in Los Angeles. The actors and actresses that we've grown accustomed to seeing in the passenger seat are given semi-leading roles. Vinessa Shaw is sexy and sultry, allowing for the possibly the only stand out performance of the film, though Willa Holland of The O.C. fame stands her ground comfortably.
shane h

Two stars is still being gracious. Weed, porn, underage drinking, porn, weed, kinky pictures and weed.