***contains possible spoilers*** As a fan if "indie" cinema, and what they used to call guerrilla (sp?) film-making, I'm always very intrigued by movies that take next to nothing and make it into a lot. The way to do this is with a good cast, and a solid script, which Treed Murray has.
The plot is basic: an advertising executive gets chased by a group of teenaged criminals. He climbs a tree for safety, and spends the night there. The kids decide to stick around (rather than do the easy thing and leave with his briefcase), and what follows is a tense character study that ends in violence. The lesson here is the old cliché, "Be sure your sins will find you out." Although there's nothing altogether new on the character front (rich white guys, thick headed but loyal white trash guy, white trash chick, and a couple of badass black kids that are twice as smart but lack direction), the thrill of the movie is watching the characters interact. The writing mostly rings true, and the actors and filmmakers worked hard to avoid the worst of the predictables. At the end of it, you're not left feeling good about the characters' lives, and I found myself really thinking of them as people and wondering what would happen next.
The setting of the movie only barely distinguishes itself as Toronto. The one down side to the movie is that in trying to examine the race divide, which is just as clear in Canada only much subtler than in the U.S., it underscores its own racism. You know the rich white guys are going to be fine because hey, they're rich and white. The white trash dude will be fine because he's also white and male. The chick will be fine because she can always sell her a$$ or have a kid and go on welfare (in Ontario the stereotype is reduced to that--we take much better care of our poor here than in the States but it doesn't say much for women or the poor). But you have the feeling that the kids who are truly screwed are the black kids. Shark, who at least had his gang at the beginning, isn't left with much, and Carter's left with nothing at all. Although you know it's the truth, it's still an awkward one, because I think we escape to movies to watch the people we wish we were. It's uncomfortable when they fail.
The plot is basic: an advertising executive gets chased by a group of teenaged criminals. He climbs a tree for safety, and spends the night there. The kids decide to stick around (rather than do the easy thing and leave with his briefcase), and what follows is a tense character study that ends in violence. The lesson here is the old cliché, "Be sure your sins will find you out." Although there's nothing altogether new on the character front (rich white guys, thick headed but loyal white trash guy, white trash chick, and a couple of badass black kids that are twice as smart but lack direction), the thrill of the movie is watching the characters interact. The writing mostly rings true, and the actors and filmmakers worked hard to avoid the worst of the predictables. At the end of it, you're not left feeling good about the characters' lives, and I found myself really thinking of them as people and wondering what would happen next.
The setting of the movie only barely distinguishes itself as Toronto. The one down side to the movie is that in trying to examine the race divide, which is just as clear in Canada only much subtler than in the U.S., it underscores its own racism. You know the rich white guys are going to be fine because hey, they're rich and white. The white trash dude will be fine because he's also white and male. The chick will be fine because she can always sell her a$$ or have a kid and go on welfare (in Ontario the stereotype is reduced to that--we take much better care of our poor here than in the States but it doesn't say much for women or the poor). But you have the feeling that the kids who are truly screwed are the black kids. Shark, who at least had his gang at the beginning, isn't left with much, and Carter's left with nothing at all. Although you know it's the truth, it's still an awkward one, because I think we escape to movies to watch the people we wish we were. It's uncomfortable when they fail.