Fierce People's premise of a teenager studying rich people like animals is grating and self-satisfied, and Anton Yelchin's smug performance makes the film even harder to agree with.
Fierce People's premise of a teenager studying rich people like animals is grating and self-satisfied, and Anton Yelchin's smug performance makes the film even harder to agree with.
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Average Rating: 3.4/5
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Actor-turned-director and producer Griffin Dunne (Practical Magic, Addicted to Love) teams up with scenarist Dirk Wittenborn for the slice-of-life ensemble drama Fierce People. As summer encroaches, 16-year-old Manhattanite Finn Earl (Anton Yelchin) would love nothing more than to trek off to South America and spend the year's sun-drenched months near the equator, embarking on thrilling adventures with his estranged archaeologist father, whom he's never met. Alas, the bonds of family rein in
tight when Finn's booze- and coke-addled mother, the masseuse Liz (Diane Lane), cries out for help -- and, in the process, unwittingly gets Finn arrested. In a dramatic attempt to reverse circumstances and sort out the complications in both of their lives, Liz insists on taking custody of Finn for the summer. Both, she insists, will live in the home of one of her former massage clients, the aging billionaire Ogden C. Osborne (Donald Sutherland) -- with whom she may be amorously involved. Though Finn agrees begrudgingly at first, in time he finds the environment welcoming -- as he develops a crush on Ogden's gorgeous granddaughter (Kristen Stewart) and befriends Ogden's grandson. But when an unforeseen and shocking act of violence erupts, it estranges Finn and Liz from their posh surroundings and provides a sobering, harrowing reminder of the socioeconomic differences between the Earls and their new friends. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Director Griffin Dunne, working from Dirk Wittenborn's adaptation of his own novel, pounds away at the analogy between the inherent cruelty of the tribal rituals of the Iskanani and those of the well-heeled.
There are lots of potent things floating around in it -- sexual initiation, drugs, fantasy-land wealth, brute violence, primitive rituals, Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland -- but the mix just sits there without producing any notable reactions.
After a promising start, Griffin Dunne's film bogs down and simply turns into a predictable mish-mash of a movie that is shrill and heavy-handed and totally trite.
The film is way too banal to raise any questions of its own. [Director] Dunne, for his part, doesn't conjure up any kind of inspired visual atmosphere or compelling psychological tension. Nothing is as funny, touching, true, or sad as it should be.
...the movie's abrupt (and downright graceless) transformation from jaunty comedy to heavy-handed drama strips the proceedings of any momentum it may have had...
With a screechingly affected voice (think Nicholson mixed with a sick Chihuahua), Yelchin is all tiring, syllable-pulling raw nerve here; a blinding pitch that holds the film back from needed dramatic expression.
A deliciously dark, cutting satire crafted as subversive re-narration of traditional Eurocentric racist anthropology normally defining Third World tribes as savages rather than, say, America's rich and famous.
I purchased this from Amazon for something ridiculous like $3 as part of a buy one get other two cheap deal. It wasn't a movie I had heard of or expected much from, but I figured it was pretty cheap and had a younger Kristen Stewart in it, so I would give it the benefit of the doubt and just sell it on if i wasn't
impressed. (And I expected not to be).What a pleasant surprise! This was a really quirky little low budget film - highly original and dealt with a topic I have never seen dealt with in a movie before (I won't say what and spoil it). You see this particular situation in movies with girls all the time, but not boys. It was very well done. This was really a unique film in that it is funny and serious and sad and surreal all at the same time. I have never seen anything else like it. Anton Yelchin is very good here, as is Kristin in a smaller role. Definitely one to check out if you like unusual films!
Intensely stupid movie that I caught on Sundance (they constantly make me question why I still keep them on my cable package, but then they show a Cassavettes marathon and I renew them). I can't believe that talented actors like Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland read this script and think it can work (I was wondering if
they owed Griffin Dunne something or just thought he was a nice guy). The movie starts out OK (exposition in dialogue is becoming a curse in film today), but then in the middle becomes a mind fuck of a movie with absolutely retarded twists (some of which you see coming a mile away). I am just glad I fell asleep towards the end and awoke to know exactly how this thing would end. Waste of talent all the way around. This is why people should stop smoking weed when they think it's making them a better writer.
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