I never put much weight on this movie, for a number of reasons. I wasn't that into the genre of the story, I was far more emotionally invested in Equal Justice (which was being made at essentially the same time) because I had helped write it, and Dastolis both seemed to agree that Another Way Home was not the "favorite." See, ever since they started having to work on simultaneous projects in Directing 1 and on through Directing 2, Directing 3, and their Capstones, a habit was naturally formed of choosing a "favorite" project that they both seemed to care about slightly more. Whichever one of them happened to officially be directing the project for grading purposes was irrelevant to them. In Directing 3, Equal Justice was the "favorite" and Another Way Home was... well, the other movie they were making. But the surprising thing about this movie is that it's really not that terrible.

Another Way Home comes from an excruciatingly honest place in James and Robert's lives, and I'm shocked that they actually made it, when it would have been so much easier to bury their feelings deep down and be able to face their mother without the awkwardness generated by this kinda thing. I won't necessarily commend their honesty (although they are the most brutally honest people on the planet), because I daresay they might not have even made this movie if they'd had any other movie ideas at the time. This may end up being their downfall. I wouldn't be surprised to receive a phone call from Robert one day saying, "We ran out of movie ideas, so we made a short about the time we accidentally ran over that guy and drove away. We never told a soul about that. And now we've made a movie about it. Anyway, the bail is set at like fifty thousand dollars." Although that's purely speculation. Certain people at the UCF Film School have been encouraging James and Robert to tell more personal stories for years. Whether this is their response to that or something they would have done on their own remains a mystery.

The mother in Another Way Home is James and Robert's mother. I don't mean the actress; I mean the character. This movie was ripped from their lives (except for the part about James dating Jacci Herman -- that was just good ol' movie magic). And if I had to single out the most amazing thing about this movie, it would be the mother's dialogue, captured masterfully on the page. It's very true to life, and I'm sure most people can probably relate, to some degree. There's nothing really to dislike about this movie, unless it makes you uncomfortable that James is talking to his mother in the front passenger seat of a car, when the last time he was in a shot like that, he was getting ready to fuck P. Sanchez in Barbados. Speaking of which, James exhibits some partial nudity here for the first time since The Up and Up (tops only -- sorry, ladies).

As you can see in this movie's excellent Behind the Scenes (or The Making of Dastoli Digital #32), the title for Another Way Home was long in the making. I think Dastolis briefly dubbed it "The Up and Up 2" during preproduction because they wanted a title like that for this movie. Basically something that sounded old timey and didn't necessarily have anything to do with the plot. But in conversation, we would all just call it "Mother Movie" (while on paper, it was officially "Dastoli Digital #32"). One night, either James or Robert was driving me home from their house and whoever it was said something about how when they came back, they would take a different way home. So I said, "That's what you should call your movie; A Different Way Home. Because it's about a guy who wants to make a new home with his girlfriend." So they ended up calling it Another Way Home, not because it's exactly what they were looking for, but probably because it looked like our collective title ideas weren't gonna get any better. Before that, I think my best suggestion was "Smother."

Fun fact: I believe this marks the point at which James and Robert started including clips of other movies being mentioned in the Behind the Scenes.

Here is what the Dastolis have to say about Another Way Home:

JAMES:

"God I hated making this movie, and I hated acting in it, and I hate watching it. But we had to make it because everyone's got to make the stupid coming of age story. Most film students make it a hundred and twleve times in fact."

ROBERT:

"Another Way Home was a movie that had to be made. For the most part it was not a movie that we enjoyed having to deal with the psychological aspects of making and it's definitely not a movie that I enjoy watching. Basically it's too close to home."