Micheal Cuesta digs further in his exploration of youth and grief by showcasing the coping mechanisms of three 12 years old kids who just lost their friend and brother in a tragic accident. One seeks attention from the wrong person, another finds comfort in changing his food habit and finally the last but not least tries to survive by understanding such tragedy but ultimately falls into revenge…

Micheal Cuesta digs further in his exploration of youth and grief by showcasing the coping mechanisms of three 12 years old kids who just lost their friend and brother in a tragic accident. One seeks attention from the wrong person, another finds comfort in changing his food habit and finally the last but not least tries to survive by understanding such tragedy but ultimately falls into revenge…

“when i saw her last night, she had the same look on her face as that little girl. she just wanted me to take her pain away.”

in a lot of ways, late night ifc in the 2000’s was what opened up my young mind to less mainstream, but still equally interesting, films as a whole.

ifc introduced me to slingblade, caché, paranoid park, and paper house amongst other films, and though they all weren’t great in retrospect, i’ve been revisiting all these films lately in an attempt to re-evaluate them now that i have more experience.

this is one such film.

it’s definitely unique as a coming-of-age story that has it’s own branching stories that all talk about different difficulties we come across, but it does amp them up to eleven and in some cases that does make me enjoy these stories less. it’s not necessarily that these kids are unrealistic. it’s that they really are shown as being on an extreme end of the spectrum which they represent.

i thought the most interesting story was that of leonard’s, and also the most realistic and based in reality. his story of his family being angry at his choices to become healthy says a lot about addiction and the toxicity of abusive households, even when the abuse isn’t so clear cut. it shows how even the ones who claim to love us sometimes would rather us be down there suffering with them than prospering without.

jeremy renner is in this for a spell and he’s unsurprisingly the best actor in this, but i wish his character had more of an exploration than some of the other story beats. very solid overall.

“when i saw her last night, she had the same look on her face as that little girl. she just wanted me to take her pain away.”

in a lot of ways, late night ifc in the 2000’s was what opened up my young mind to less mainstream, but still equally interesting, films as a whole.

ifc introduced me to slingblade, caché, paranoid park, and paper house amongst other films, and though they all weren’t great in retrospect, i’ve been revisiting all these films lately in an attempt to re-evaluate them now that i have more experience.

this is one such film.

it’s definitely unique as a coming-of-age story that has it’s own branching stories that all talk about different difficulties we come across, but it does amp them up to eleven and in some cases that does make me enjoy these stories less. it’s not necessarily that these kids are unrealistic. it’s that they really are shown as being on an extreme end of the spectrum which they represent.

i thought the most interesting story was that of leonard’s, and also the most realistic and based in reality. his story of his family being angry at his choices to become healthy says a lot about addiction and the toxicity of abusive households, even when the abuse isn’t so clear cut. it shows how even the ones who claim to love us sometimes would rather us be down there suffering with them than prospering without.

jeremy renner is in this for a spell and he’s unsurprisingly the best actor in this, but i wish his character had more of an exploration than some of the other story beats. very solid overall.