Everyone at some point in their childhood experiences a bully. Except maybe those of us who were the bully. "Mean Creek" is a painfully realistic portayal of a prank gone wrong. Writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes has managed to blend realistic cinematography with an excellent ensamble cast of bright young actors to bring this story to life. As the film opens, we see a schoolyard fight already in progress. The bully (George), is played especially well by Josh Peck. More recently he has been seen in "What Goes Up" and my personal favorite of his, "The Wackness". Early on we get a sense that he is your typical everyday bully. Starving for attention, Held back in school, overweight, self consious, apparent single parent home. His target is Sam, played by Rory Culkin. Recently he has been in such films as "Igby Goes Down", and "Lymelife". Sam's older brother who looks out for him is Rocky, played by Trevor Morgan. He is tired of seeing his brother get beat up by George so he schemes with his buddies to give George "what fatboy has comming to him". The leader of Rocky's pack is Marty, played painfully accurate by Scott Mechlowicz. He has his own issues that fully explain the type of character he portrays. Humiliation is the plan for George and so the gang plans a fake birthday party for Sam. They invite George out boating with the gang for the day. Its here that we meet Sam's innocent girfriend Millie who wants nothing to do with any of this. Millie is played by the talented Carly Shroeder who hasn't done much big screen acting, but is now 19 and hopefully will have a good career ahead of her. When she finally gets word of the plan she is furious and demands that Sam put an end to it. All except Marty, who is looking to take out his aggression on someone else, sees that George is a nice kid who is just looking for friends. They all call off the plan, but once something goes wrong, the unimaginable happens and any more will ruin the intensity of film completley.
This film relys on its young actors to lead the way. Their performances are authentic and personal. Having grown up around the same time this film came out, and being just a little older than these kids were at that time, I remember how bullies acted and how they needed to fit in. This film was released in 2004 and is a real gem. Some parts may be too much for some viewers because of the intensity and how realistic it feels, but that is what makes this film flourish. A solid piece of work which can be held at the same level as "Kids", and even the similarly intense film "Bully".
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The third kind would be close enough for me.
Aliens have always been interesting to me. Hollywood has always portrayed alien encounters as being violently motivated. Steven Spielberg has avoided this trend in some of his movies such as 'Close Encounters of the third kind' and 'ET'. Now comes "The Fourth Kind". A part documentary, part Hollywood piece of garbage brought to us from director Olatunde Osunsanmi.
This film stars Milla Jovovich as Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist investigating strange happenings in her small Alaskan Town of Nome. Jovovich is good here, there is no doubting that, but its unfortunate that she has nothing to work with. She works by hypnotizing her patients to look deeper into their uncontrolled thoughts. She notices that a few of her patients have had the same experience and seen the same things in the middle of the night. She relates because she too had a strange encounter in the middle of one night in which her husband was murdered. Original technique is what kills this film in my eyes. Osunsanmi layers "real documentary footage" with the films actors footage and it has them saying the same thing simultaniously. This is not only too much to look at, it is just downright annoying.
What doesn't work for me is the ethical portion of this film. You mean to tell me that I am supposed to believe that a Psychologist, crazy or not after her own encounter, would submit archived interviews with actual patients to be publicly viewed in a Hollywood film. This is illegal under the law. Sure they say in the film that the names have been changed. But they do not even blur out the faces. In one portion of the archived footage from a police mans dash cam, we see a man kill his entire family then blow his own head off. This is completley off the wall and innapropriate if it is truly real footage. There are also plot holes. Tyler has two children both under the age of 12. At one point she gets up in the middle of the night and leaves the house to help a patient that is in need of immediate assistance. Who is watching the kids? She is recently a single parent. Another portion that did not work for me is the completley over the top performance of Will Patton as an FBI agent investigating Tyler. Patton is usually very good but here he is unwatchable. Overall, what kills this film is the notion of reality. If it is real, which they give us a choice to believe it or not near the end, I will retract my statements. I do believe that aliens exist, but I do not believe in Dr Abigail Emily Tyler's Story.
This film stars Milla Jovovich as Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist investigating strange happenings in her small Alaskan Town of Nome. Jovovich is good here, there is no doubting that, but its unfortunate that she has nothing to work with. She works by hypnotizing her patients to look deeper into their uncontrolled thoughts. She notices that a few of her patients have had the same experience and seen the same things in the middle of the night. She relates because she too had a strange encounter in the middle of one night in which her husband was murdered. Original technique is what kills this film in my eyes. Osunsanmi layers "real documentary footage" with the films actors footage and it has them saying the same thing simultaniously. This is not only too much to look at, it is just downright annoying.
What doesn't work for me is the ethical portion of this film. You mean to tell me that I am supposed to believe that a Psychologist, crazy or not after her own encounter, would submit archived interviews with actual patients to be publicly viewed in a Hollywood film. This is illegal under the law. Sure they say in the film that the names have been changed. But they do not even blur out the faces. In one portion of the archived footage from a police mans dash cam, we see a man kill his entire family then blow his own head off. This is completley off the wall and innapropriate if it is truly real footage. There are also plot holes. Tyler has two children both under the age of 12. At one point she gets up in the middle of the night and leaves the house to help a patient that is in need of immediate assistance. Who is watching the kids? She is recently a single parent. Another portion that did not work for me is the completley over the top performance of Will Patton as an FBI agent investigating Tyler. Patton is usually very good but here he is unwatchable. Overall, what kills this film is the notion of reality. If it is real, which they give us a choice to believe it or not near the end, I will retract my statements. I do believe that aliens exist, but I do not believe in Dr Abigail Emily Tyler's Story.
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