Clay Peterson Archives - Sean Kelly On Movies

I should probably begin by saying that even though I am going to be quite critical of this film, I am still going to acknowledge that the filmmakers are still quite young and seemed pretty happy that the film got into a film festival and was actually shown to people. Plus, they gave out free hot dogs in the ticket holders line. Finding Truelove is obviously a very amateurly-made documentary. To say that the documentary doesn't take itself serious is probably a bit of an understatement. In fact, I thought that it was a very juvenile film. Also, the filmmakers noted that they essentially had to reedit the whole film in 72 hours after a hard drive crash and I am sad to say that it really looks like it was. Let's take a break from criticizing the filmmaking and move on to the film itself. So, these kids find an old yearbook from 1990 in a thrift store and they are completely in awe at all the people in the book. They are especially interested in one particular individual named Tim Truelove. In a moved that could be considered crazy by some, the kids decide to crash this particular high school's 20 year reunion and meet (and film) these people in person, with Truelove being high on the "too see" list. I have to say that the very juvenile way these kids made the film made me cringe many times and I have to admit I actually considered walking out a couple times. However, my interest was peaked when they reached the town, where the reunion was being held and actually met some of these people. It might just be because the film was edited that way, but these people in their late 30s/early 40s did not really seem to mind that a bunch of kids 14 years younger than them had not only crashed their reunion, but was also filming the experience. I definitely say that it was quite a bit surreal. Also, the film was filled with popular music from the late 80s/early 90s. This is actually by biggest fear about the film after it finishes its run through the festival circuit. While it's cool to include all these songs in the movie, in the end the rights will probably cost more than the film itself. As such, unless the film gets a distributor that covers the cost, I'm not that optimistic about this film has much of a lifespan (in its current form at least). I'm going to be quite lenient with my final opinion of the film. Even though the film was badly made, very juvenile, and generally not my cup of tea, I'm going acknowledge the weirdly interesting story and how I'm sure that the filmmakers were happy the film even got screened at all. 7/10