LAFF 2013: ALL TOGETHER NOW

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A scene from All Together Now.

Into the woods they go

By Miranda Inganni

All Together Now narrates roughly 24 hours at a noise-rock concert in the woods (with a parking lot), where the teens and young adults have gathered to navigate through their aspirations, sexual inclinations and lots of libations.

Co-written and directed by Alexander Mirecki, All Together Now intertwines the tales of numerous attendees at this decidedly indie event that Ron (Lou Taylor Pucci) has cobbled together. Underage, gothy Ashley (Hannah Sullivan) and her friends are dropped off by her dad, Bruce (Hal Dion). Before heading to the parking lot to wait for his daughter and aliens, Bruce leaves Ashley (who is documenting the scene with her phone) with his trusty employee, Richard (Will Watkins), and his girlfriend, Tegan (Monika Jolly), to keep an eye on the youngsters.

Meanwhile, Michelle (Lindsey Garrett) muses about what she wants to be when she grows up while falling for Ron. Additionally, young Gulliver (Jerry Phillips) screams along to his father’s instrumentation as the first performers of the evening. When his father, George (James C. Burns), tries to kill the soundman, and is himself subsequently subdued, Gulliver is taken under the wings of two attractive twenty-something year old groupies to party the night away. Anon (Luke Stratte-McClure) hitches in -- looking out of place in his clean suit – until he is confronted by Able (Tucker Bryan), who doesn’t seem to know when to quit. Most excitingly, however, Ron’s overwhelmingly enthusiastic friend, Zeke (James Duval), has shown up with two anvils and enough gun powder to send one of them flying into the night sky. (What could possibly go wrong?)

Shot by Zoran Popovic in gritty super 16, the film feels like footage from a makeshift outdoor concert, and the lighting leaves a lot to be desired. (Who is the mysterious third person holding the flashlight on Anon and Able as they walk away from the show?). Mirecki does a good job of weaving the music in and out of the story -- the audience never spends too much time in the corrugated tin shack in which the bands actually perform, but there are too many moments of meandering in the film.


All Together Now screens at Los Angeles Film Festival June 20, 7:10 p.m., Regal Cinemas; June 22, 9:50 p.m., Regal Cinemas. For more information: ATN at LAFF 2013.