Honestly, at the beginning, I was enjoying this a lot. It’s a shame about the unnecessary rape, racism, abhorrent animal cruelty and the whole last 20 minutes because this film had a lot of potential. Structurally it’s a very engaging film with an interesting premise. I liked the found footage feel of the second half with the 16mm.
What makes this a bad if not terrible film is the director lies to himself that he’s making a point through the…
Opening alone says it all, starting with the first image of America is the Statue of Liberty upside down like that isn’t symbolic enough? The whole film is filled with those sort of symbolic parallels. Lazslo has come to America looking for hope but finds only greed and more hatred.
I think it’s why a lot of people find that second half so hard is because most people feel that hope with him. You want it to all work out.…
I watched this film because it was all about a culture I was interested and not just skate culture but the hip hop and street fashion.
But it’s so much more than.
It’s a beautiful coming of age story of a boy who just wants to fit in. And a group of boys who just want to be something.
THE SOUNDTRACK
“What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”
