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About the Film

Turf Valley | 2021 (United States) Summary:
Countries: United States

Film Stills

Film Review

TURF VALLEY takes the suburban dad comedy trope and breathes fresh life into its bloated and decaying corpse.  With witty banter and clean, borderline sanitary cinematography, this new web series directed by Adam Rodgers and written by Rodgers and Thomas Ventimiglia is a great example of short-form episodic content that is perfect for web audience consumption.  With the longest episode clocking in at a lean twelve and change minutes (Episode 7, the season finale), TURF VALLEY is a quick in-and-out comedy series that will leave audiences looking for a second season.

The actors playing the three main father characters fill their roles perfectly and really have the tone of the bored, yet somehow still put upon suburban upper-middle class dad act down to a science.

As stated above, the cinematography is clean and professional.  The audio, at least through my wireless earbuds was fine, although the outdoor scenes sounded a little tinny to me, but that might just be a factor of filming outdoors and having to seriously ADR in post-production.  Or it could just be the ear buds. 

The interstitial music is bright and bubbly, fitting the tone of the overall episodic arc and stays fairly consistent throughout.  Overall, from a technical perspective there is little to fault this web series for.

One thing that TURF VALLEY does really well is give the impression of the entire community that the characters live in.  Instead of just focusing locations on just one home, many of the scenes take place out on the street, cutting away to other houses and people living in the area.  This really breathes life into the storyworld the writers/director were intending to create.

The jokes are mainstream and fairly unoffensive, making this a good series for teens and older to watch, although younger parents settling into their lives are probably the ones who will enjoy this the most.

Review Scores

Direction
4/5
Screenplay
4/5
Cinematography
5/5
Sound
4/5
Acting
5/5
Final Score
4.3/5
A film critic for over a decade and a die-hard supporter of independent film and those that make it. Nic LaRue hails from the state of Massachusetts and spends his free time running a woodworking business (LaRue Creations), cooking, and taking time outside with his dog, Luna.