Directed by Andrew Morgan 
Written by Andrew and Emily Morgan 
Starring Sam Rose, Marla Freeman, and Matthew Danger Lippman 
Runtime: 94 minutes
Available digitally September 7

by Miguel Alejandro Marquez, Staff Writer

Samantha Rose is a deliciously beautiful little film that stands out as a testament of what you can do with very little. After the river of mediocrity that was the 2020-21 cinematic landscape, this serves as a breath of fresh air for those who appreciate what can be done with a camera. Those who appreciate cinema.

Samantha Rose tells the story of Samantha, a young woman who has ditched the mundane world of the big city, for the simplicity of her father’s small-town living. The characters of the film are millennial beatniks/bohemians that spend much of their days drinking wine, and swinging off of trees. Samantha grows to both love herself, and those around her, while going through her journey of self-reflection. 

The film is certainly an aesthetic. Young people running and stealing and simply living their lives isn’t new (I’m looking at you French New Wave), but this film does bottle up an emotion that’s hard to describe. Here’s this critic’s best interpretation of how to explain this film: the film feels like a music video to a band you don’t normally listen to, but come across while shopping for jeans at an Abercrombie and Finch. There, I said it. I spewed nonsense. Accurate and specific nonsense, but I digress. It’s an aesthetic that is both uncommon, and will be warmly welcomed by a select few. 

This film isn’t for everyone, and you need to be in a certain mood to enjoy it. Certain critics may not be tolerant towards this movie due to its idealistic nature. To its perception of young people. You need to be in an open frame of mind to enjoy a movie where twenty-somethings argue about Noam Chomsky in a field. It’s a lot like 2001: A Space Odyssey in that regard. It’s not something that you turn on when you have a large group of people over, or when you’re trying to hang out with a girl. It’s a movie you either watch in a theater, or by yourself when you’re in the mood. This isn’t a popcorn flick, and certain criticisms will be drawn due to this, valid or not. 

Samantha Rose does have substantial problems though, but these problems do not outweigh the goods of the film. The film doesn’t follow a typical story format, something that this humble critic would usually gripe against, but for this movie, a movie with this type of story and substance, it is perfectly excusable. Not every film needs to follow the typical story format, and in some cases, the typical story format would serve as a detriment. Something typical would totally be a detriment to Samantha Rose. There is more to be said about the faults of the movie. 

A cringe inducing moment occurs during the halfway mark, in which a random character, that’s given no backstory, tries to harass the females of the group. One of the characters immediately tries to defend the group of women, before being pummeled by the random antagonist. Terrible screenwriting. It’s a lovechild between a diablo ex machina and a “saving the cat” moment. A singular event that’s randomly placed into the story, before quickly being brushed away. It’s a moment for people to foolishly fall in love with the group. But what does it add to the story? Sympathy for the bohemians? This is a statement to the screenwriters of Samantha Rose: earn it! Earn sympathy. Don’t be lazy. Don’t take shortcuts. 

That’s enough with the lambasting, let’s go into the positives. 

There are so many things that sonically resonate in this picture. The film’s cinematography is both simple, yet elegant. A 16mm film stock look has been applied to the digital photography, and works well with the type of subject matter that Samantha Rose tackles. It gives the

impression of a home movie, or the music video-esque quality mentioned earlier before. Audio wise, the soundtrack is organic as well as a compliment of what is told visually. It’s basically what all good films try to achieve, invoking feeling that cannot arise any way else besides through the soundtrack. It was a cinematic marvel in every technical aspect and was stylistically spectacular, even though it didn’t follow a typical format. 

By the time the film was over, nothing in the story had changed, but in a good way. It was a snapshot of a moment, rather than a movie. A feeling that was held together by a loose story in order to capture the excitement and uncertainty of youth. Samantha Rose feels like a summer vacation summarized in an hour and a half. It has both the chaos, the confusion, and the friendship, of a typical summer break.