I recieved a screener request for the Four Points, asking me to consider reviewing the film. I could have requested a screener link, but it seemed deeply redundant as the film was already on Tubi. It does not have any known audio description, and is definitely independent cinema. I don’t believe that is necessarily the blanket excuse for lack of accessibility in cinema, but I do believe there are a lot of indie, first time filmmakers, who because they don’t need the accessibility, are unaware of it, or how important it is. that is why I’m here, doing this, because we have to talk about it. whether it’s a Marvel film, or a Tubi movie starring a host of actors I can’t recognize by name alone, accessibility matters.
That being said, I’ve definitely seen films that are more unintelligible than this without audio description. I still wouldn’t recommend it to a blind or low vision audience, because there’s enough that you’ll end up missing, but the bigger question is should you watch The Four Points at all? the movie is about a pair of cops seeking to stop a gang war, who find out that there might be some unexpected players in the game they weren’t ready for. It starts in a flashback, and works forward, and time jumps are lost sometimes without audio description.
However, this is a low budget affair, so they don’t have the luxury of blowing things up or wasting blanks. they smartly designed a film that is mostly conversations about the possibility of danger, setting a mood and tone that while some want to head right into death, not everyone does. So, we get a dialog heavy script, with a safe use of locations, lots of interiors, and a score that I think is just a tremolo of a single note on a string instrument. Indie scores can be a mixed bag of simply non-existent, to music choices that have nothing to do with the film, and do nothing to enhance it. that being said, having essentially a sound in the background felt like it was just there to prevent the absence of it. Like, just any sound is better than none at all.
I thought the acting was fine. Actually, my favorite performance got killed off early in the film, which was a shame. But, the rest of the cast is at least believable enough in their roles. Dustin Harnish, Dominique Marsell, Dorien Wilson, Ruben Pla, and Olga Aguilar are just a few of the cast. They wouldn’t draw me in based on name recognition alone. However, director Raul Perez managed to make a crime drama with these actors that didn’t feel like a complete waste of time and space. Tubi is great because it gives people a platform, often when seemingly no one else will, and the quality on the service can vary wildly. I once was asked in a very similar nature to review another film on Tubi, and I passed, because after watching the film, I felt like I’d be that guy who gets angry at little kids for not understanding grown up concepts. With The four Points, I don’t think we reinvented the crime drama, but it works as a show of competency for a director to be offered perhaps a higher budget next time, or simply expand on their resume. Competency should breed employability and bankability, and there are shades of that here.
However, I don’t have a grade, because this film doesn’t have audio description. It is pretty much in the middle of the road for me, which makes it more difficult in a Fresh/Rotten world, as audio description could lean it one way or the other.
The last note I’ll give you, is that I think it is important to watch films like this, audio description or not. I would challenge you to watch one truly independent film each year, especially one with no one you recognize. If you get lucky enough to get audio description, then great. But, there’s this entire world of struggling up and coming filmmakers, and actors, and if we pretend like we are too high brow to notice, we’ll never catch the rare diamonds in the rough that deserve to continue to work over and over.
No Grade Due To Lack Of Audio Description
