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List Price: $29.99 | | Label: Miramax
Salesrank: 52727
Released: July 3, 2007 |
| Our Price: $7.90 |
| Used Price: $1.58 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Hot, up-and-coming teen stars Jason Ritter, Hilarie Burton and Autumn Reeser and four-time Emmy® Award winner Allison Janney head the cast of Our Very Own, the engaging coming-of-age story about believing in your dreams. Itching to leave small-town life in Shelbyville, Tennessee, five friends are sent into a frenzy when they learn hometown-girl-turned-Hollywood-star Sondra Locke may be returning. Believing she’s their ticket out, they do everything they can to make it happen. 2005 winner of the Bluegrass Independent Film Festival Grand Prize for Best Feature Film and the Rome International Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, Our Very Own is a heartwarming, hope-filled story about the power of friendship, family and believing in yourself.
Description of Our Very Own:
A collective coming of age story set in the small town of Shelbyville in the late 1970's, Our Very Own is a story about five teenagers bored with small town life who are struggling to find direction and purpose in their lives. The family lives of each of the five teens are very different, with the teens forced to deal with everything from an unemployed alcoholic father, to taunts of being gay and parents who constantly demean them. When local girl Sondra Locke, who's made it big in Hollywood, is rumored to be returning for a movie premiere that coincides with the town horse show, the five teens are inspired collaborate on a tribute to Sondra for the town variety show. Their original work aptly showcases their individual and collective talents and the five teens begin to really believe in themselves. In the end, the teens must hold fast to their dreams while continuing to struggle to find their individual paths toward maturity and adulthood. Featuring a cast of up-and-coming young actors including Jason Ritter, Hilarie Burton, and Autumn Reeser and favorites like Emmy Award winner Allison Janney, Keith Carradine, and Cheryl Hines, the acting is powerful and the story believable. Winner of the 2005 grand prize at the Bluegrass Independent Film Festival and the special jury prize at the Rome International Film Festival.--Tami Horiuchi
Our Very Own Reviews:
our very own is very true 
2009-05-29 - I was very pleased with this movie, I have lived in Shelbyville all my life and I grew up knowing Cameron Watson, he was a few yrs older then me but he graduated with my sister. He did a great job on the movie of getting Shelbyville down to a tee. Even Charlie the wonder dog in it. I was glad that I could get it off from amazon I had looked everywhere for it. So way to go Cameron on a job well done. Hope to see more movies out of you and keep it up. And to the one that was selling it thanks alot.
Young friends and things that bond them 
2009-05-11 - A little on the corny side. Probably real good for young teenagers. Glad to see Hilarie Burton has come farther than this in her acting career. Not one of her best works but she has come a long way.
COMING OF AGE
2009-04-01 - OUR VERY OWN
LIVING IN A SMALL TOWN IN 1978 HIGH SCHOOL FRIENDS TRY TO GET THROUGH GRADUATING AND TRY TO FIND A PLACE AND TO FIT IN A SMALL TOWN. THE UP ROAR OF A MOVIE STAR COMING TO TOWN IS ALL THEY HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO. THERE IS NOT MUCH THEY CAN TO LOOK FORWARD TO, SO THEY TRY TO MAKE A PLACE FOR THEM SELVES. NOT MUCH HOPE , THE MAIN EMPLOYER HAS LAID OFF MANY OF THE TOWNS WORKFORCE INCLUDING CAL'S DAD. JASON RITTER IS VERY GOOD IN HIS PART. LOST AND NOT HAVING MUCH HOPE, OR DREAMS. HE SEEMS ACKNOWLEDGE THIS FACT.
HE DOES NOT HAVE MUCH TO LOOK FORWARD TO, HIS DAD OUT OF WORK, FURNITURE REPOSED, CAR, NOW THE HOUSE. HE SHOWS COURAGE WHILE THIS IS GOING ON TRYING TO KEEP HIS MOTHER FROM BREAKING SOWN AS HER FAMILY GOES BROKE, FIGHTS, AND DISAPPOINTMENT.
THIS LEADS YOU THINKING THAT WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE STUDENTS AFTER GRADUATION. WILL THEY LEAVE HOME? WILL THEY REACH THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS? WILL THEY BE STUCK IN SHELBEVILLE LEADING THE SAME LIFE AS THEIR PARENTS?
Our Very Own piece of $#%+! 
2008-09-05 - Poor script, poor acting, poor movie. Another reviewer wrote that this movie was the new "American Graffiti", but there are no similarities whatsoever, nada, zilch, zero. Don't waste your time!
Cameron Watson's hometown movie about Shelbyville, Tenneessee in 1978
2007-07-07 - I can see where "American Graffiti" is an obvious point of cinematic reference for "Our Very Own," but while this 2005 film has the charm and sense of nostalgia that defined George Lucas's film, it does not have the same feeling of weight. But that is going to happen when one film has a character who will end up being reported MIA in Vietnam and the other has a character who is hoping to see the actress Sondra Locke. Still, first time writer-director-producer Cameron Watson, an actor who might be most recognizable for his role of Rick in the 2-part "The Other Side of Life" on "Grey's Anatomy" last season, has put together a nice little film about Shelbyville, Tennessee, where he went to high school. Watson was born in Lexington, Kentucky, but Sondra Locke was born and raised in Shelbyville (valedictorian of the class of 1962), which explains why the whole town gets excited
Sondra Locke was pretty much at the peak of her career back in 1978, which explains why everybody is excited about her new movie that year, "Every Which Way but Loose" came out. The previous two years Locke had starred in "The Gauntlet" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales," so on the one hand you have to wonder why nobody is wondering if Clint Eastwood is going to show up, but on the other if you know how their 12-year romance ended you can understand why his name would be taboo in this film. But all that matters is that as far as Shelbyville is concerned they are all excited that their very own favorite daughter is coming home to kick off the annual walking horse competition for which the city is best known.
Ostensibly this film focuses on a group of young friends trying to figure out the rest of their lives. Melora Kendall (Autumn Reeser) is the one who is giddy with the thought of meeting Locke, while Bobbie Chester (Hilarie Burton) just wants to borrow the car from her momma (Beth Grant) and check out the nightlife in Nashville. The two girls hang out with a trio of guys. Glen (Michael McKee) is not quite out of the closet, Ray (Derek Carter) who does not have much to say, and Clancy Whitfield (Jason Ritter), whose family life is about to implode. His father Billy (Keith Carradine) has been drinking more and more since he lost his job and now his mother Joan (Allison Janney) is finding her dinning room furniture is being repossessed and is worried about losing the family home. So while the kids are in the forefront of this movie, is what it happening with Clancy's family that our attention gravitates towards, especially given Janney's performance.
Much is made by the fact that Watson got Mary Badham (Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird") to do her first film in almost 40 years to play Mrs. Nutbush, but the more impressive testament to this film is that his script got Janney to play Clancy's mother. Janney is 6 feet tall, but Carradine is an inch taller and that matters in this film as Billy makes his wife look small. Joan knows that the train wreck her life is fast becoming will be grist for the town's gossip mill and she is trying to retain her dignity. At least Joan's best friend, Sally Crowder (Cheryl Hines) is a true friend and can help lessen the indignities that Billy is heaping on her. Playing C.J. Cregg on "The West Wing" earned Janney four Emmy Awards, but she has had trouble finding movie roles worthy of her talents ("American Beauty" being the exception proving the rule in this case). Joan Whitfield is a supporting role in the film in the dynamic of this film, but you are drawn to Janney in virtually every scene in which she appears.
The time frame of this movie precludes much happening in terms of resolution to the Whitfield family problems, let alone Clancy's budding romance with Melora, Melora's quest to become an actress, or most of the other pressing concerns of these young folks that week in Shelbyville. But if Bobbie can just get Ricky Pranger (John Will Clay) out of her hair, that would put these kids ahead of the game. "Our Very Own" is a small film that celebrates small moments, and the key moments in this film are the simplest of beginnings. Beyond Janney's performance, the most impressive thing about this film is how the people of Shelbyville supported what Watson was doing. You look at the end credits of this film and you have to wonder if there actually are any businesses in town that do not get mentioned. This is not a product of Hollywood; it is a hometown movie if every I have seen one.
