Hey folks, Harry here with a look at AMERICAN GUN, one of them there IFC films... ya know, Independent Film Channel? It's good to hear we have a new director and film to track. As of right now we don't have a scheduled release date, but with this cast and this type of quality, I think we'll probably be seeing this one pop up in Art Houses before the end of the year. Watch out for some spoilers...
Hey Harry,
Longtime reader of the site; first submission.
Glad to hear your surgery went well! Let 'em ply you with Vicodin and Morphine. It's sweet while it lasts, then the pain sets in!
Review of AMERICAN GUN...
So this evening - just twenty-four hours after dry-heaving my way through Dubya's State-of-the-Union - I proceeded down to Hollywood's lovely Arclight Theater, the sort of place I could never afford on my own. Ticket's are a little rich for my blood... but a free screening? That I can swing!
Before the film began, the Marketing Suits introduced it. Then we were off to the races...
The film's directed by Aric Avelino. Never heard of him, and given his profile on IMDB, this smacks of first feature. Amazing cast, too (Marcia Gay Harden, Forest Whitaker, Donald Sutherland, Tony Goldwyn, assorted others), which surprises me, because I don't recall hearing anything about the film. So it was a pleasant surprise to come in cold.
Basically, the film concerns several parallel but separate plots revolving around the issue of gun violence in America. In that sense, it reminds me most of "Traffic" with a hint of "Thirteen" and a smidge of "Lean on Me."
The main character - though it's really an ensemble - is Jane (Marcia Gay Harden), the mother of a young man who - several years previous to the opening - shot up his high school in a Columbine-style assault and killed himself. At the outset, she does a "Nightline"-type news interview about the shooting, which gets her younger son - played by an amazing Chris Marquette, the bestfriend from "The Girl Next Door" - kicked out of the fancy prep school where he's been going. As a result, he's forced to attend the school his brother shot up, but fortunately, he meets a little cutey named Talley - the DELICIOUS Nikki Reed - and they have a sort of quasi-young-love thing where they give each other googly eyes and write on each other's skin with ballpoint pens. The other major storyline revolves around Tony Goldwyn's Frank, who was one of the first on the scene to the school shooting and still carries the guilt of not halting the event. In another, unrelated subplot, the prinicpal of a tough Chicago high school (Forest Whitaker) fights the pressures of his job and takes a gun-toting student under his wing. And in yet a third storyline, Linda Cardelini plays a young woman forced by her family to work at her grandfather's gun shop while she attends college in Virginia. The grandfather's played by Sutherland, in a small but memorable character part.
Overall, I liked the focus on the characters. The ensemble gets plenty to chew on here. There's some intersting turns in the plot (like when Marquette gets booted out of school or when Cardelini gets assaulted at a college party) but essentially, it's a film about human beings and their lack of communication and connection. By the end, they all make changes - some big and some very small - and the resolutions feel real. I had the sense that the lives of these charactes would go on after the last reel, that their problems, while conquered in minor ways, are not resolved in any neat, superficial ways. The endings are not all upbeat (without giving spoilers, I think you can predict that someone will get be gunned-down in a film about guns), and I really liked that the film had teeth. It's not about advocating some simple "guns are evil" message; it's about the way in which guns are woven into the fabric of our national culture and the way their presence forces men and women to make choices everyday, for good and bad.
Performances are really strong, for the most part. Cardelini's quiet and subtle, but sympathetic, and Sutherland's alot of fun to watch. He's a little frumpy and scruffy here, not quite the elder statesman of the cinema we last saw in "Cold Mountain," and I loved watching him, even when he's up to the everyday business of cleaning guns, running the shop, etc. Goldwyn and Whitaker are servicable; they're not memorable but not bad at all. Marcia Gay Harden's amazing, but then again, I'm the guy who considers "Mystic River" one of the best American films ever made. So it could be afterglow. For me, though, it was the young people who steal the show. Many of them I didn't recognize, especially Arlen Escarpeta, the kid who plays Whitaker's student, but he's great. A ton of depth and power. And Marquette's really strong as well.
Camera work's fine. Some cool color saturation makes Chicago look gritty and industrial and makes Virginia look like the characters could start dancing around the Maypole at any second. The music is a little ho-hum, but it may have been temp tracks. I got the impression they're still tinkering.
It's a small film, about a topic that's gotten plenty of play. But I appreciate that they respect our intelligence enough to spare the "red state vs. blue state" oversimplifications. There's some really unique, memorable character moments, and unltimately, that's what I took away.
But I'm exhausted right now, and I got to get up early to get across town for work.
Keep up your recovery, Harry! Get well!
As for my name... call me Lumpwacca
