Katie Says Goodbye

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source: Katie Says Goodbye

I don't think anyone could enjoy this movie, but I think that people who saw it will be glad they did because of all the emotions this movie and this actress made them feel. Olivia Cooke was exceptional. I felt proud that the leading character was able to stay positive throughout, she was a winner who had not yet experienced winning. She will and she would go on to bigger and better things in the future. Mireilli Enos was great as her selfish and depressed mother.

Finding out who sees you for who you are. There are bad people and there are good people, but they're often not the ones you think they are. Hope has a supernatural way of surviving no matter how hard you try to kill it.

Kudos to all involved with making this film. You told a story that is all too common in pieces and parts. This film was so sad I almost shut it off more than once. No one person could survive all that happened to Katie and she didn't. Your characters aren't people but, rather archetypes. Katie is a martyr. The monosyllabic Bruno is the struggle most ex-cons face after prison. The mom is an example of the upside down, dysfunctional parent child relationship typically brought on by substance abuse. Maybelle is society. She sees everything. A sympathetic witness unable to help. Sara is our darker nature. Mr. Daniels the father of our darker nature and an active participant in the burning. Dirk, Mr. Willard and Matty are the negative aspects of capitalism. Bullies and their followers professionally and personally. Officer Warren and Bear seeming care but, are in truth predators. I was unable to figure out the time for the movie to take place in: Dollar a gallon gasoline, sex with under-aged prostitutes for ten bucks, shipping container trains and no bill seen in the movie was larger than a twenty. The death of Katie and re-birth as a lot lizard was chilling. Your movie is too strong to win an Oscar. Katie Says Goodbye

For this movie, set aside an hour and a half when you don't need something simple and happy. Watch it in a quiet moment when you feel a little contemplative as to how life might have turned out if you had gotten nothing but bad breaks. Remember that this sweet, helpless young girl is someone who would be demonized by a lot of people today. Remember that life sometimes goes wrong. Maybe she'll fix it, maybe she won't. But everyone with a shred of empathy is rooting for her by the end of this movie. It is beautifully told and beautifully acted.

Katie is play beautifully by Olivia Cook. Hard to believe she's British. This movie is flawless, as far as acting. The plot however, is so depressing, but I couldn't take my eyes off of it. She loses everything in one day and yet gets up, literally, and starts over. Bravo!

Katie waitresses at a remote Arizona roadside diner and lives in a mobile home with her depressed mom, who spends the rent money on booze. Instead of being overwhelmed by such challenging circumstances, Katie has set her sights on moving to San Francisco to become a beautician. In order to realize this dream, she supplements her meager wages and tips by prostituting herself to passing truckers and local citizens - and keeps her savings from these encounters in a shoe-box under her bed. Katie is cheerful and resilient to a degree which stretches credulity, but Olivia Cooke does extraordinary work to keep her believable. Meanwhile director Wayne Roberts extracts fine performances from the rest of his cast. Despite her engaging personality, Katie has made enemies as well as friends in town - and when she falls in love with a taciturn ex-jailbird mechanic and quits selling her body, they show their true colors. The script piles troubles onto Katie's shoulders as her altered lifestyle becomes the catalyst for betrayals and serious danger. The subsequent events are tough to watch - but the excellent acting, direction and cinematography make it well worthwhile.

The acting in this film was gripping. The tone was amazing and super compelling. The scope of the film was perfectly suited to highlight the small town drama. However, this film was overly bleak and too uncomfortable to be enjoyable to watch! *************** SPOILERS **************** The problem with this movie is that it had very few moments of joy or goodness to offset all the misery it presented. It was brutally graphic and raw... but out of balance. I really needed a little sunshine to counterbalance all the evil. Luckily, Bear, the truck driver, and the diner boss lady, were in Katie's corner. But it never they never got a chance to shine as a hero or mentor for her. Every little bit of redemption or hope was missing or hidden from the audience. For example, when the mechanic goes to beat up the rapist, we didn't get to have the justice of seeing the revenge on screen. In stead, they just cut away. It was frustrating to not get closure on seeing the rapist get his due. And even in the very end of the movie, we see Katie is finally choosing to overcome and move on. But she hitchhikes to a semi truck and we know she is just going to get abused again. I wish the semi pulled up, and a really friendly and motherly lady trucker was at the wheel. Then we would have felt like Katie was going to be ok. But instead, we know exactly what will happen in that truck. Overall, my feeling felt like... If you are getting hit on the hand with a hammer for 2 hours, it feels really good when someone stops hitting. Like when Katie finally chooses hope at the end. Sure, she chose hope, but after being hit with a hammer so long, any break would feel good. It felt manipulative in that way, gratuitous cruelty with the end goal of relief.

Greetings again from the darkness. This little gem played at the 2017 Dallas International Film Festival, and at that time, I wrote about how writer/director Wayne Roberts was one of the new and most exciting filmmakers to burst on the scene. Now, more than two years later, the film is finally getting the distribution it deserves, and I still worry there will be those who decry another film exploiting women as a victim of society. I also still stand behind my case that there is another way to view the story of Katie, a good-hearted dreamer played beautifully by Olivia Cooke ("Bates Motel", THOROUGHBREDS, READY PLAYER ONE). Initially, Katie's unflappable optimism seems unlikely, if not impossible. She walks miles to work along a dusty highway. She lives in a trailer park with her deadbeat mother (Mireille Enos), whom she supports both financially and emotionally. She works double-shifts as a waitress at a truck stop, where she's known to toss in a couple extra bucks when a particularly frugal customer stiffs the other waitress. She also works a side job as a prostitute for locals and a regular trucker named Bear (Jim Belushi). Despite a life filled with *stuff*, Katie doggedly pursues her dream of saving enough money to move to San Francisco and become a hair stylist. Of course, since she's cursed with a heart of gold, she has to save enough money for her own trip AND for her mother to live on. Her dream seems lofty, yet almost achievable. When Katie falls for Bruno (Christopher Abbott), the new guy in town, she tries her best to fall in love and pull him into her dreams for a better life. It doesn't take long before Bruno is made aware of Katie's side job, and her fantasy world begins to crumble. On a daily basis, Katie happily (of course) drinks up the truck stop wisdom of diner owner Maybelle (Mary Steenburgen), who spouts such gems as "A man with a smile will hurt you". Good intentions abound here, but we realize ... even if Katie doesn't ... that the reality of people's self-interest is the immovable object that so often tears down the dreamers of the world. As with much of life, one's enjoyment of the film is likely contingent upon the perspective you bring. A caustic, cynical view will have you waving off Katie's lot in life as exploitive movie-making; while those who can share even a spoonful of Katie's spirit, will find themselves rooting exuberantly for her dreams to come true ... or at least to sustain her refreshing outlook on life and people. Director Roberts recently released his newest, THE PROFESSOR, starring Johnny Depp. He remains a filmmaker to follow.