MONTAUK77 (2021) User Reviews

Charming little Long Island movie with its heart in the right place

[bill-84148 · 10/10 · 12 October 2022]

With camera technology better than ever these days, there are more low budget feature films available than you can shake a stick at. Most aren't very good.

Montauk77, fortunately, is that welcome exception.

It is well made (with some beautiful cinematography). It's charming. It's funny and its touching, and the ending will leave you with a well-earned tear in your eye. The father-daughter team of the Scully's have a recognizable on-screen chemistry and they lead you through a story that provides enough surprises and memorable little moments that you'll watch the end credits feeling your time was very well spent.

There should be more movies like this, which leave cynicism and manufactured moments at the door and, instead, look to embrace ideals about the decency of people that can resonate with everyone. And, lastly, being a Long Island movie by a Long Island filmmaker doesn't hurt. New York filmmakers always have that colorful edge and dry sense of humor that you're born with here. Highly recommended.

The Scully family make an independent movie.

[TxMike · 9 February 2023]

This low-budget movie made its way onto the Amazon Prime streaming platform. My wife and I were looking for something to watch on this slow Wednesday evening and we picked this one after watching the trailer.

I was struck by its very high IMDb rating, in fact it is so high it would be THE best movie ever made in the history of movies. But when you consider that it has (as of this moment) only 17 votes, most are likely by friends and family, and almost half of them are "10". And the only user review (until the one I am writing, destined to be the second) was written by someone who has only that one review, also likely by a family member or friend.

You see Michael Scully and his daughter wrote this movie, they star in it, and several other Scully family members have small roles. It is a home movie but with much better production values. But can it compete with a well-made Rodriguez or Tarantino movie? Not a chance.

With that as a background I will go on and add that my wife and I enjoyed it. There is a heart-warming story of a recently orphaned teenage girl who wants a ride-share driver to take her to Montauk Point, to the lighthouse so she can scatter her mother's ashes. Then the story develops into something much more complex and for the most part handled very well. The actors are adequate, not outstanding, but it doesn't matter much here because the presentation is pretty straightforward.

My biggest gripe? The background music was often very annoying, both my wife and I commented on that, plus it was overbalanced (too loud) for the volume of the speaking voices. No, this will never be mistaken for a great movie but for what it is, and the limitations of the production, they pulled it off pretty well. I rate it 5 of 10.