American Gun: Grade D

D

American Gun

Marcia Gay Harden, Forest Whitaker, Donald Sutherland, Linda Cardellini; Director Aric Avelino

Four small disconnected slices of life are shown. The acting is first class and that makes the movie worth seeing. You could show this movie in a drama class, the acting is that good. But, there is no plot, no music, no great directing, no dramatic tension, no interesting photography, no point to it all. Maybe a few interesting edits are in there. Forest Whitaker is the overwhelmed principal of a city school plagued by misbehaving students. None have guns because of the metal detectors at the door, but guns are at least talked about. Marcia Gay harden is the mother of a boy who did a school shootout, and apparently was killed himself. She and her seemingly normal second teenage son have fights about whether he should attend that same high school. Donald Sutherland runs a gun shop at which his sullen granddaughter works. She takes shooting lessons but nothing comes of that. Nothing comes of anything and the movie goes nowhere. Quite a difference from the 2002 movie of the same name starring James Coburn and Virginia Madsen, which at least had a story and a political point to make.