Frenemy: Grade C

C
Frenemy (2009)

Matthew Modine, Zach Galifianakis, Paul Adelstein, Callum Blue; Director Gregory Dark.

In this extremely low budget film, a porn video store in LA is held up and two customers (Modine and Blue) are temporarily hostage, along with the owner (Galifianakis). The chatty burglar (Adelstein) engages the hostages, in the funniest scene in the movie, in which the store owner objects to all the talk, “What is this, My Robbery With Andre?”

That is the best line in this off-beat comedy, and the allusion characterizes the rest of the film which is far less interesting and funny. The two customers are otherwise seen walking all around LA, having lunch, coffee, and parties, all the while talking about the meaning of life, love, fate, death, and so on. That dialog is very mildly amusing but not really funny or insightful. Woody Allen it is not. And the acting is mediocre, at best. However, overall, the movie is original, and well-photographed, and a respectable effort.

Harsh Times: Grade B

B

Harsh Times (2005)

Christian Bale, Freddy Rodriquez, Eva Longoria. Writer-Director David Ayer.

Excellent acting makes this dark tragedy lift its head above banality. A couple of loser guys in their 30’s on the mean streets of contemporary LA, drink, smoke, do drugs, play with guns and generally act like stereotypical lowlifes while half-heartedly searching for jobs. By luck and circumstance, they do manage to get jobs, and take a disastrous trip to Mexico to celebrate. They return, have a shoot out, and the movie ends, so there is no real plot, just a series of incidents. A confusing story error has Bale sell his gun but continue to own it in later scenes. Character development is virtually non-existent because Bale’s character is a certifiable psychopath with overt symptoms of some kind of brain disorder that disposes him to unpredictable violence. The other characters gradually come to realize something is wrong with him. This is one of my pet peeves, writing a psychopathic character into a script, because anything can happen for any reason without the character being realistically motivated. It’s lazy writing. Despite all these problems, the fine acting by the three principals keeps your attention on the screen.

Alpha Dog: Grade A

A

Alpha Dog (2006)

Justin Timberlake, Ben Foster, Emile Hirsch, Shawn Hatosy, Anton Yelchin, Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis. Writer, Director: Nick Cassavetes.

A gang of mostly white, young, drug-dealing hoodlums in LA go about their low-life activities, talking trash, strutting macho, objectifying decorative females, drinking beer (Heineken only in this movie), smoking tobacco and weed. It’s a depressing start, watching a bunch of dim bulbs.

But the pace quickens as we find that a couple of characters owe money to Hirsch, the gangleader-Godfather (looking and acting a bit like DiCaprio) who lords it over them. He’s got perfect gangleader moves, expressions, and psychopathic smiles. Foster, one of the debtors, ignites the screen with his intense performance. He sizzles like Ben Kingsley did in Sexy Beast. Genuinely scary. His little brother (Yelchin) is kidnapped as debt leverage, and Timberlake becomes his minder. Timberlake’s acting is subtle and nuanced, a revelation.

And speaking of revelations: Sharon Stone as the kidnapped boy’s mother. Where has that performance been all her career? Unbelievable. There is a lot of outstanding acting in this movie: stars of tomorrow. The directing is hard to describe, but the result feels real, human, and intimate, not cartoony like so many gangster movies. The influence of the Godfather and Goodfellas is evident, but these gangsters are scary because they haven’t got a clue. Their wealthy, self-obsessed, absent parents render a subtle social commentary. Some split screen shots showing different camera angles add interest, but I didn’t understand what they meant. This movie was a real surprise. It will be a classic.