A very stark, sad and sobering drama about angry, surly, fatherless, alienated, stuttering and oppositional misogynistic 12-year-old Dan Love (a frightfully credible and exceptional performance by Harley Cross), a malcontent adolescent who's ignored and unloved by his neurotic and equally unstable mother Candice (excellently played by Karen Young). Dan gets sent to a mental institution so he can be cured of his violent, psychotic mood swings. Alas, he only becomes increasingly crazed and volatile due to the woefully impersonal, ineffective and uncompassionate psychiatric treatment he receives. Director Juan Jose Campanella pulls no punches and offers no easy answers in this deeply disturbing and ultimately quite tragic tale of teenage misery beget by severe parental neglect. Moreover, Campanella also illustrates in chillingly lucid terms just how miserably ill-equipped most professional institutions are in properly rehabilitating a borderline psychopath. Catherine May Levin's sharply observant, provocative and confrontational script likewise hits hard with its stinging social commentary, pointing out that Dan is the toxic product of a horribly lackluster upbringing and how his basic poignant need for love and affection gets continually overlooked by so-called "experts" who are supposed to help, but more often really make things much worse instead. A then unknown pre-stardom Adrien Brody impresses in an early substantial co-starring role. A genuinely unnerving and extremely powerful film.
Review of The Boy Who Cried Bitch
The Boy Who Cried Bitch
(1991)
A very potent, unnerving and unjustly neglected indie drama gem
16 February 2007
Warning: Spoilers