Indie filmmaker Shane Michael Butler’s comedy-drama Down the Cape is a very sweet micro-budget film based on school friendship and how it’s important to maintain your real self no matter how much time or distance separates you. Although the film doesn’t really go deep into the relationship or the past of each character, it somehow touches on the essence of understanding between friendships at different levels.
The story introduces us to a group of high school friends getting together in an apartment for a weekend party on Cape Cod. It’s just a year into their college, but somehow they have molded themselves into the new surroundings of their respective lives. So, as they appear for this reunion with their partners and a crate of booze, there is bound to be a slight deviation from what they were in their school days.
Down the Cape highlights the new personas of few while underlining the consequences of their friendships if they don’t remain truthful. Even though few of them try to project themselves by playing up with the reality or exaggerating things which they nowhere relate to, their old relationship would certainly bring all of them to a reality check in recognizing the role they play in each other’s life. It shows how their new perceptions of themselves should never really come to terms with friendship and how it’s easy to be just themselves than try to be different.
Director Shane, who is also the film’s writer, certainly explores an individual psyche, particularly when we often become conscious of ‘what we really are’. To explain it further, he very successfully portrays the dilemma in friendship among a group of college friends. And I like the fact that he keeps it simple till the very end while summing it up with a positive note.
Considering the budget of the film and bringing together such a young cast is indeed an incredible work. Performance-wise India Pearl as Charlotte is probably the best in the group. While overall the film looks excellent, I believe the first half could have been a little more engaging with some kind of backstory other than the long conversation sequence among the characters. Nevertheless, it’s a nice watch for all indie movie lovers.
The full movie is available online on YouTube, but I’m not too sure if it’s available everywhere, as I had to send a request to the makers to make it available for me on YouTube. If you have any queries, you may reach out to the team on their Facebook Like Page.
