(no subject)
Twelve and Holding
“Seen on Youtube!”
9/10 Stars
After looking up Captain Ron on IMDB (I think an extra in Captain Ron played a neighbor in this), I somehow stumbled upon an interesting trailer for a middle-american Larry Clarkesque (but better) film. I subsequently found the entire film in chunks on Youtube. I decided to view this movie "Twelve and Holding", hardly knowing anything about it and was riveted by every seven minute segment I sat through on Youtube. Most movies addressing the tween population miss the mark. This film does not, in fact, it is right on the mark. Powerfully and sensitively written by Anthony Cipriano and directed with relentless intensity and grace by Michael Cuesta, this is a haunting film about youngsters on the brink of adulthood who respond to each other and to events in ways far beyond the scope of most mature adults.
The film deals with twin brothers - Rudy, a born leader, and Jacob, a social recluse with a facial birthmark - who are friends with Malee, the daughter of a single psychiatrist mom, and Leonard, a quiet corpulent boy from a family full of champion overeaters. Two bullies decide to throw Molotov cocktails inside the tree house while Rudy and Leonard are sleeping. Rudy dies in the fire, setting off a cocktail of conflict for his brother and two friends.
Hatred and guilt as intense as the fire that took his twin brother consume Jake as he plots revenge against the “murderers.” Leonard, having barely escaped the fire has decides to lose weight and pursues his goal with monomaniacal determination. His whole family - especially his mother - is totally dismayed by his "strange" behavior. Malee, in her matured sexuality, is trying to cope with pangs of loneliness inherited from her mother's disconnected view of their family's breakdown, and finally met with a possible answer from an older guy named Gus, one of her mother's therapy clients. The manner in which these three youngsters enter the adult world is more than challenging and the results of their response to entering 'maturity' and to the trauma of the death of Rudy is shattering.
Cuesta's surprisingly subtle direction somehow manages to avoid both the salacious tendencies of a Larry Clark film and the annoyingly overt quirkiness of similarly themed films like "Me and You and Everyone we Know" to deliver an intense and perplexing tale of coming-of-age, revenge and loneliness. I would highly recommend this movie, especially to parents. A nice little gem.
“Seen on Youtube!”
9/10 Stars
After looking up Captain Ron on IMDB (I think an extra in Captain Ron played a neighbor in this), I somehow stumbled upon an interesting trailer for a middle-american Larry Clarkesque (but better) film. I subsequently found the entire film in chunks on Youtube. I decided to view this movie "Twelve and Holding", hardly knowing anything about it and was riveted by every seven minute segment I sat through on Youtube. Most movies addressing the tween population miss the mark. This film does not, in fact, it is right on the mark. Powerfully and sensitively written by Anthony Cipriano and directed with relentless intensity and grace by Michael Cuesta, this is a haunting film about youngsters on the brink of adulthood who respond to each other and to events in ways far beyond the scope of most mature adults.
The film deals with twin brothers - Rudy, a born leader, and Jacob, a social recluse with a facial birthmark - who are friends with Malee, the daughter of a single psychiatrist mom, and Leonard, a quiet corpulent boy from a family full of champion overeaters. Two bullies decide to throw Molotov cocktails inside the tree house while Rudy and Leonard are sleeping. Rudy dies in the fire, setting off a cocktail of conflict for his brother and two friends.
Hatred and guilt as intense as the fire that took his twin brother consume Jake as he plots revenge against the “murderers.” Leonard, having barely escaped the fire has decides to lose weight and pursues his goal with monomaniacal determination. His whole family - especially his mother - is totally dismayed by his "strange" behavior. Malee, in her matured sexuality, is trying to cope with pangs of loneliness inherited from her mother's disconnected view of their family's breakdown, and finally met with a possible answer from an older guy named Gus, one of her mother's therapy clients. The manner in which these three youngsters enter the adult world is more than challenging and the results of their response to entering 'maturity' and to the trauma of the death of Rudy is shattering.
Cuesta's surprisingly subtle direction somehow manages to avoid both the salacious tendencies of a Larry Clark film and the annoyingly overt quirkiness of similarly themed films like "Me and You and Everyone we Know" to deliver an intense and perplexing tale of coming-of-age, revenge and loneliness. I would highly recommend this movie, especially to parents. A nice little gem.