The Four Corners of Nowhere (1995) User Reviews

A MUST see IMO

[luciddv · 10/10 · 8 September 2005]

I saw this film about 8 years ago on Sundance channel and absolutely LOVED IT!! Comedy YES, and rather brilliant at times. AS a fan of dialog's driven movies this film scores big for me. There is a LOT more than just humor to this movie and was very thought provoking especially pertaining to some of the visual symbology. The last scene/s in the film were nothing short of genius. It is a breakdown of the main parachuter's experiences drawing all the threads together into a short symposium with beautiful message. I am an emotional person and this film really touched me and made me laugh out loud from the sharp witty humor.

I HAD a VHS I recorded from the TV and shared it with a lot of friends. Nearly EVERYONE loved it... some are just not too deep or sharp witted.

I lost the worn out VHS nearly 5 years ago and have never seen it broadcast since, nor is it available for purchase ANYWHERE. I really miss it and would gladly pay an unreasonable sum for a copy *wink wink-nod nod* If you have access to a copy please please please let me know (aol.com) It would really mean a LOT to me.

This is a blast, you gotta see it.

[javaman-5 · 8 September 1999]

Although set in a "Gen-X" milieu, this is a smart, perceptive film that says a lot about young people in our time, and offers hope. While it is a little rough, the characters are great, and Chbosky's dialogue and situations are a scream. See it!

alternately hilarious and piercingly perceptive; most accurate portrayal of the "gen-X" mentality that I've ever seen

[nacton42 · 10/10 · 21 September 1998]

"So when I made her a mix tape with the mandatory number of Indigo Girls songs, I was thinking we'd get it on, y'know?" The above comment from the character Toad is a prime example of writer/director Steve Chbosky's blend of wit and cultural satire displayed in The Four Corners Of Nowhere. Just when you think the film will be a heavy-handed sermon on the lost feelings of this generation, it switches to a stream of sparkling satire on everything from activism to psychotherapy to douche, and back again. For those of you who thought no one read what you read while feeling the way you felt, Chbosky's perfectly balanced film will make you feel you're not alone in either area. Its plot centers on Duncan, a Rimbaud-quoting hitchhiker who visits place after place until he's "literally seen the whole world." In a visit to Ann Arbor, Michigan, he encounters Toad, a surprisingly talented but burned-out performance artist; Julian, the sociopathic college DJ; Stoned (the name says it all); Squeeze, a genius in disguise as the submissive girlfriend of a Kafka-reading painter; and a host of other characters who combine to illustrate Chbosky's ultimately uplifting and accurate film. This one is worth seeing by all means, if only for the reassurance you feel after it's over that you, too, aren't just another fad.

Wonderfully-written tongue-in-cheek commentary on "Generation X''s trappings and frustrations

[nacton42 · 10/10 · 15 September 1998]

I grew up on The Breakfast Club. So when a film finally did as good a job at following a number of disparate characters as TBC did, I rejoiced that independent film might finally be coming to life again. Steve Chbosky's introspective and on-the-mark gem about a group of so-called drifters in Ann Arbor sets up our expectations about the seemingly one-dimensional characters and then knocks them down in an accurate parallel to what the current generation has been doing to society for years. Chbosky's screenplay is alternately piercingly perceptive and laugh-out-loud funny, and just when you think one extreme will dominate the rest of the film Chbosky switches from emotional discourse to one-liners about the Indigo Girls or vice versa. The story centers on Duncan, a nomad who passes through Ann Arbor for a week or so, only to leave lasting impressions on aspiring folk singer Jenny and surprisingly competent burned-out performance artist Toad. Along the way Duncan (and vicariously the viewing audience) gains insight into human nature, interacts with a frustrated DJ who periodically spouts nuggets of wisdom between deadly accurate monologues about puberty for women, and makes a highly symbolic collage of the U.S., only to teach his friends (and us) that in the end, only we determine if we are just another fad.

Heart warming, thoughtful, provocative...boring!

[bowls · 1/10 · 14 February 2002]

The problem with first timer, low-budget, inde-films like these is that they spend too much emphasis on over philosophizing life and less time entertaining the viewer. Clearly the filmmaker is trying to brag about every book he read by inter-laying into this script. Don't bother with this little lost picture; not that you'd be able to find it anyway. You're better off renting a Hal Hartley film, of which there is obvious derivative influence.

Great Low Key Film

[bodhidharma · 10/10 · 20 October 2001]

It's hard not to compare Four Corners to the Breakfast Club. The movie is driven by characters and dialogue. I first saw this on the Sundance Channel and I had to tape it the next time it was on. Since then I must have watched it 20 or 30 times. The movie seems alternately funny, weird, sad, happy, angry and puzzling. Some of the characters seem like stereotypes but they all change over the course of the film. This is definitely too good for Hollywood.

A better Breakfast Club

[bodhidharma · 10/10 · 28 March 2000]

This movie was hilarious. It's like a Breakfast Club for 20 somethings. I would put it in the same category as Kevin Smith's films but this one works as well or better with an even smaller budget.

Great characters. Good philosophical points. Enjoy this movie with a twist of your favorite herb.

There were many gen-x comedies in the mid90s. Here's one!

[britain · 1 October 1999]

I saw this movie in the place it was probably most intended to be screened: the Michigan Theatre, a restored movie palace in Ann Arbor, the real Michigan town where the film is set. Ann Arbor is perhaps best known to the rest of the world as the home of Michigan Stadium and the Wolverines, a popular football team that -- many people don't know this -- is also accredited to teach college-level courses!

This movie does a fine job of quickly sketching life in Ann Arbor, an artistic, laid-back community occasionally referred to as "San Francisco of the Midwest." The scenes of the folksinger's residency in the local coffeehouse were right on for the time -- sadly, most local coffeehouses no longer support live music, and those that do have started charging cover, more-or-less becoming alcohol-free clubs.

I know this probably makes me sound a little sad, but I would love to find this film on video and reminisce on the times we were living in when it first came out -- finishing high school, discovering espresso, figuring out what we were "good at," giggling at how incredibly, extremely deep Duncan was.

this movie was great

[vergiljtm · 6 January 2004]

i actually liked this movie a lot. i thought, too, that some of its brilliance was in that the filmmakers threw out your normal expectations of films. the acting sucked. the direction sucked. but its not like they didn't know what they were doing.

doesn't it seem funny that a movie about how much it sucks to carry on in our normal fashion rejects the notion that acting has to be a certian way. and as is the point of the film, you just have to accept it, appreciate the questions more than you pursue the answers.

this movie is great. it's a real shame that it cannot be found almost anywhere. there is a lot to be learned. first and foremost, being part of life is a pleasure, not an accomplishment or an entitlement.

Eric Vesbit once saved me from a flaming bus. I appreciate that.

[electrobaboon · 24 December 2001]

At its core, Four Corners is a sweet story about artistic pretension, personal fulfillment, and love, in that order. The characters, all college-age and located in college-town Ann Arbor, Michigan, are, at first glance, stereotypes and exaggerations of the students and hangers-on typically found in such burgs. Uniformly white and well-heeled, they read too much Dostoyevsky, worry about the tribulations of the American Indian, and smoke a lot of weed. They cull angst where there need not be any and do a hell of a lot of kvetching.

In other words, they're all the worst sort of people alive. However, writer/director Steve Chbosky is aware of this, and he does a great job of finding the human beings buried beneath these stereotypes and, slowly but surely, bringing them to the surface as the story progresses, having fun with the stereotypes all the while. As the disparate stories of the principal characters arc and come together through the action or inaction of the secondary (read: functional) characters, the movie's tongue falls quickly out of its cheek and it finds a real voice and message in its conclusion.

Although I personally have little sympathy for the faux-problems of silver spoon rich kids like the ones in this movie, Chbosky and the excellent cast do a great job of raising them from the deadness of stereotypicality, and, when all was said & done, I walked away from the movie a little bit happier than when I'd started it.

impressed by Boston screening

[cvalhouli · 26 November 2001]

I had the pleasure of catching this film in its limited theatrical release in Boston some years ago, and I remember it as one of the more impressive independent films. Wry dialogue and beautiful pacing allow the film to follow several groups of characters whose stories resolve and combine beautifully by the end. Looking forward to seeing more work from this team.

Four Corners of Nowhere-Where can I see it?

[brownsf · 10 December 2005]

I've heard lots of great things about The Four Corners of Nowhere and am anxious to see it. Unfortunately, I missed it when it was in general distribution. I've searched online and various video rental sites and just can't find Four Corners of Nowhere on VHS or DVD. The Sundance Channel, which aired it several years ago, says that they no longer have movie rights. I even contacted the former distributor. He also didn't know where the movie is available now. It seems to have disappeared from view. For a movie of this quality, that is really a shame. Does anyone know here can I get a copy of The Four Corners of Nowhere--or at least find a place to see it?