Mr. Roosevelt ( Noël Wells, 2017) USA

Reviewed by Ellia Rodriguez. Viewed at AFI Fest 2017.

I came into this movie not expecting anything good or bad and I left with a sense of completion. A feeling as if I had just finished the first book in a series. Then finding out that there will be more following. Actor Noel with completion of this movie makes me look forward to what more magic we can expect from her. This amazed me even more than I could of anticipated.

Noel Wells is the director, writer and actor of this indie film Mr. Roosevet. When the cast was questioned about how it was working alongside their director they all stated that they enjoyed the experience. The cast also saw how much work Noel had to do to achieve this goal.

Mr. Roosevelt is an indie movie set in Austin Texas. Noel Wells plays Emily in this film along with a varied cast; Nick Thune, Britt Lower, Daniella Pineda and Andre Hyland. This story starts with a death of a cat that brings Emily and her ex-boyfriend together again. Emily comes back to her hometown from LA to make Mr. Roosevelt’s death arrangements while staying at her ex-boyfriend’s house with his new girlfriend. While staying in her hometown she learns that she is a bit of a youtube celebrity. She makes friends with a free spirited girl named Jen played by actor Daniella Pineda who provides Emily with a support system. In these troubled times she tries to say goodbye to the dearly departed Mr. Roosevelt.

During the opening credit there is a montage of photos of characters in this movie. As we see the photos of faces are cut out of the pictures to revel the credits. This reminded me of what people do to old photos of people they don’t like anymore. Which I thought was a clever way to start the movie. Later on there is another montage of Emily stalking the facebook page of Nick Thune’s character Eric and seeing the change from their relationship together as a couple to the new one he has with Britt lower’s character Celeste. The pacing of this scene really hit on the nose for anyone who has ever wondering whatever happened to a person through facebook. It also encompassed the crazy feeling you get looking through photos in this type of mindset.

As Emily lives in Celeste and Eric’s pinterest style house she seems out of place right away. She is wearing braids  and bright colors. Whereas Celeste is wearing long plain dresses of grays and earth tones. Eric wears the same tones matching her current girlfriend to truly looking like a pair. Then when she attends a dinner date with other friends of Mr. Roosevelt. This turns an awkward situation into a really funny moment by having Emily own an very embarrassing situation in her life. I believe that Emily takes her power back at this point with her normalization of the situation. This reminds me of the actress Kat Dennings character in 2 Broke Girls where she might get embarrassed, but she just owns it and the ridiculous setting of it is very funny.

In conclusion, I believe this is a film is worth anyone’s time to come out and watch. It’s a well told comedy about truths a lot of us have to go through in life. Hopefully someone can enjoy this ride of honest believable characters in Noel Wells’ film Mr. Roosevelt.