Soft Like Me (1996)

When you think disturbing movie – think Soft Like Me. After seeing it yesterday, I could only say that a film can hardly get more disturbing than that.Even its tagline,” With hope comes punishment” sounds quite weird, surreal, and depressing.

On a prairie wheat field in a mythical past or fantasy future, boys are enslaved to harvest wheat. They hope to escape, but with hope comes punishment —firm and final punishment. In an article titled Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Canadian Film^[1] the film is said to deal with the intersections of the prairie landscape and childhood…and while that is not a very detailed or accurate description – I am guessing that it’s shows some insights of what the movie is about. To me, it also seemed like a horror film.

While researching for the review you are now reading, I stumbled upon an interview with the film director says :

For example, in Soft Like Me, I wanted to recreate the Canadian prairies at the turn of the century, but the one that no one talks about. It’s the one that isn’t in the history books because history is obsessed with blunt objects like facts.”^[2]

Some of you are familiar with the rather popular The Nature of Nicholas. Soft ike Me (1996) – a 24-minute short film directed by Canadian director Jeff Erbach. I am having trouble following the movie he directs – or even understanding them – but at the same time, he has a unique style that can hardly be mistaken.

Sample Clip

The movie can be seen online on the Underground film website, but be warned that it contains violence and mature themes. Soft like Me is one of the bleakest, most chilling visions you’ll ever encounter.

Best Coming-of-Age Movies according to Dustin Rowles

I stumbled on quite an interesting article about coming of age movies at the pajiba.com web site. The article was written by Dustin Rowles. He had a quite an interesting definition to the coming of age genre that I would like to share with you :

“Indeed, the best coming-of-age movies are almost always fish-out-of-water films; the water is our youth, and coming of age is how we acclimate ourselves to it“

What follows are 10 trailers of movies that he consider best of the genre. Only three of his 10 would make in at my own top 10 list – but honestly I admire him for being able to pick some – as selecting a limited numbers of the gems out there is not an easy task at all.

The best thing in this article are definitely the comments that the readers of his article left. I admit that I am a bit jealous at him for being able to attract so many comments – which is something I am not as successful yet. The people who read the article noticed as many of you had that most of coming of age movies are about a boy`s experiences – I have addressed this intriguing issue in my article Coming of age films – boy`s or girl`s thing. A person nicknames Koolickle left a comment in Dustin`s post outlying female leads that in some great coming of age tales you may be interested in reading. Several more titles are provided by Alabamapink and Inaras and Lucy just few comments below.

You can find the article I meantion in this post and its respective comments at pajiba.com

Yours,

SkyKid

10 minutes by Ahmed Imamovic

10minutes Just opened my RSS reader and stumbled on a post about the short movie 10 Minutes. My opinion is that the movie was quite well filmed – showing how much can 10 minutes be for someone and how less of a time for another. I would like to get your feedback on this film – do you think it deserves its high rating at IMDB ( 8.4/10) ?

Similar film : Savrseni Krug

COA blogs movie awards

A new experiment is to be launched -The Coming of Age Movie Awards . For the first issue there will be only few categories:

Special Soundtrack award
Best cinematography award
Best acting award
Coming Of Age Value award
Best short film award

If you want to support our nominees or add your own suggestion feel free to leave me a comment with the details. At the end of course all nominations will be carefully analyzed , merged and voted on by us and every one of you who wish to participate.

If you have a blog that focus on coming of age movies – feel free to join our initiative.

Nominations and results :

Mud (Кал) (1997)

A buddy of mine from Russia referred me to Mud (Кал). Mud is a short Bulgarian film released in 1997. Despite being made quite recently, the director decided to use a color filter that presents the whole film in dim colors. It focuses on the short (but pure) friendship between a foreign tourist and a gypsy boy. The foreigner witnesses the young boy robbing a store and he starts chasing him…

When the chase is over and the boy is caught, in his struggle to get away he manages to seriously injure the foreign tourist…

The movie is very realistic – but at the same time I feel the director could have conveyed his message in less time that 24 minutes. There is some symbolism – mainly a teddy bear that shows that despite the harsh live the gypsy boy is still a kid and birds that are used as a metaphor of death.

The entire movie could be seen online absolutely for free at its IMDB page. Leave me comments with your impressions when you see it.

Plot description in Russian :

Описание: Короткий фильм о необычной но чистой дружбе между иностранным посетителем Болгарии и цыганским мальчиком. Иностранец случайно вовлечен в преследование цыганского вора, который наносит ему смертельный удар с ножом.Тогда обстоятельства вынуждают эти двух врагов остаться вместе некоторое время и постепенно они становятся друзьями. В конце мужчина умирает из-за его раны. В конце мужчина умирает из-за его раны.

Benny’s Gym (2007)

After reading about Benny’s Gym’s short film, I knew that I had to see it myself.

Benny’s Gym’s first scene shows the eleven-year-old Alfred running from a gang of boys chasing him through the woods. It reminded me a bit of myself – as for some reason, I always got in trouble with the local ” school gang,” and it was my classmates and me running fast enough, which saved me from troubles. Alfred, in the film, unfortunately, is not that lucky…

He gets caught – one of the bullies – Benny notices the fantastic drawing skills of Alfred. He befriends Alfred – but wants to keep their friendship secret from his other friends. Their friendship is alike, one featured in another movie: Son of Rambow.

But mostly reminded me of a friend of mine and myself. You see, in a way, I am associating myself with Alfred – but that friend of mine was exactly like Benny – not only did he act that way – but he also looked alike.

Both Atdhe Belegu Kim Erik Tena Eriksen are incredible in the leading roles. It was very moving to see these two boys carry out the large task of convincing their audience that they were indeed genuine in their actions. They did superbly. To watch Benny the Bully and see almost from the beginning that he was hurting inside and trying to cover his own need for love and acceptance with the rejection of others was portrayed without flaw. Of course, on the other side to see Alfred, who was not a pushover, only a very compassionate and caring boy who only fought when pushed too far, was projected perfectly. These two young actors are the highlight of the entire movie. The story was also quite convincing because it showed the hurts that can run so deep when you are that age and seek love and acceptance from everyone.

Benny’s Gym is an amazingly accomplished film, everything from its superb editing to the fantastic cinematography — especially all the hand-held camera work that is quite effective in the chase scenes. Both boys have a natural ability so that the expressions on their faces always convey their emotions quite well. Of course, they pretty much wear their emotions on their sleeves anyway, as the connection between them is sharp and somewhat raw. Excellent effort.

This Norwegian short film about abuse and marginality demonstrates that youth’s problems are the same everywhere in the globe and that as a society we’re failing to keep things balanced. There is a fantastic treble performance in the film – yet another extra, making it worth seeing.

El Niño Que Gritó Puta (The Boy Who Cried Bitch)

I am officially naming The Boy Who Cried Bitch one of the finest films ever created. A drama based on true events, the film will not leave anybody unmoved. I just finished viewing it and could scarcely articulate what I felt.

Indeed the first scenes are quite misleading – bringing back reminisces of Michael Cuesta’s Twelve and Holding. At first, we see boys fooling around and their mother, who cannot control them. We are introduced to the film’s young protagonist, the 12-year-old Dan Love ( played by Harley Cross). We first see him as an erratic and impulsive young lad but learn more about him as the story develops. Harley Cross delivers an extraordinarily explosive performance as a confused and psychotic adolescent. It must have been pretty challenging for the young actor to play such a sophisticated character. Yet he manages to put off an exemplary performance. His facial expressions, his eyes – I can guarantee you that you will remember his look for a long time after seeing the film.

I want to quote one of my favorite movie reviewers Marc Savlov who in his review of The Boys Who Cried Bitch excellently described the talents of Harley Cross :

“Harley Cross, as Dan, has managed to tap into a gold mine of talent. He’s all ticks, stutters, gleaming eyes, and mood swings, thoroughly convincing as a juvenile psychotic, while at the same time imbuing his character with terrible inner sadness and confusion.

It’s rare to see a young actor come across so convincingly in such a profound and decisive role, but Cross is a master of the game here, and Dan Love is as believable as a gunshot in the night. “(link to the original review of Marc Savlov)

Of course, Harley Cross is not the only excellent actor in the movie. Special mention deserves the performance of Jesse Bradford (who himself had an exceptional performance in this film and King of the Hill ).

If I were to label the first scenes – they could easily fit under the title “Bad boy tutorial,” and I am sure that many parents would not want their sons to see how the young Dan behaves. It seems that the young boy lacks affection – and his mother fails to recognize his needs, preoccupied with herself. When it comes to properly parenting her boys she seems weak and powerless, with a past history of failures. Dan is quite aggressive towards her – and that is probably many of you would be surprised seeing him at school – where he befriends the maintenance guy who happened to be a Vietnam vet. He teaches the boy how to fire an arm, and they seem to get pretty well together.

For some reason, Dan changes totally when he is around the war veteran – he looks a bit nervous, which I guess is normal since, in the absence of his father, he takes the man like a male role model. Their friendship seems odd as Dan seems to order the man around – asking him to get some food and beverage for him and his brothers. This scene was quite bizarre – even if younger people are often known for such demands. The thing is that the war veteran has some physiological issues himself, and after firing at the girl’s dorm with his gun, he gets arrested and taken away. For the boy, this arrest is shocking as he loses his friend – and role model. That shock influences the boy’s already unstable mentality, and during the night, a boy from his dorm sees the traumatized Dan- sitting on the floor, blabbering…

Dan is being sent to the hospital (or rather a psychiatric institution) – in which the doctors are supposed to help him control his reactions. The doctors also think he suffers from behavioral psychopathy, paranoia, obsession, stereotyped movements, and compulsive and uncontrollable behavior attacks. Unfortunately, they fail to help him – much like his mother – who I felt could have helped him if was more caring.

The film soundtrack impreses straight away – composed by Wendy Blackstone, it is powerful and enhances the drama of a narrative thus retaining one`s attention at all times, while at the same time causing a sensation of uneasiness.

Juan Jose Campanella – the Argentinian director of El Niño Que Gritó Puta crated a real masterpiece.He was able to produce an emotionally charged picture that was characterized by authenticity and realism, as well as a succinct and practical mise-en-scene. Despite its dark overtones, I highly recommend this coming-of-age film as it offers an insightful and powerfully emotional journey through a troubled teen’s life.

The Boys of St. Vincent

Some films are difficult to review. The Boys of St. Vincent is definitely one of them. I decided that I will give it a shot – and you can decide for yourself if I managed to give your some general idea of what the movie is about and if it is worth seeing . Let me first outline the basics – The Boys of St. Vincent is a two-part made-for-TV that was produced and filmed in Canada. It is not surprising that such a film was produced there instead of the US as the themes it touches are very sensible and Hollywood`s production in general fail to address serious issues and prefer to focus on things that sell better . Let`s remember that another well written and directed movie which dealt with similar themes Jet Boy was also produced in Canada. The director of The Boys of St. Vincent did fell into the cliche trap – and the result the production is a bit predictable and incomplete. The film on itself obtained quite a publicity when it was released – in fact it was banned after his its first screening on Canadian TV ( much thanks to protest from the Catholic church) – only to be released on a DVD shorty after. One should mention that the movie topped the ratings when it was breakfasted having with 2.1 million viewers on the first night and 2.6 million on the second. (source )

The movie itself deals with abuse both physical , psychological and sexual. It could be described as psychological drama – as a lot of thought is given to the creation of the character`s thinking and motives . The action takes place at the at the St. Vincent Orphanage in Newfoundland. The priest who are supposed to take care of the boys took advantage of them to satisfy their sick desires . This includes varies forms of abuse and beating. Some of the scenes depicting the abuses are quite disturbing which makes the movie hard to watch . Similar scenes one can observe in films such as Sleepers and Song for Raggy boy – and I must warn you that this movie is not really suitable for those of you who are used to the cotton candy American productions that frequent the cinemas .

When the janitor discovers that one of the boys has been severely beaten , he takes him to the hospital and tries to report the incident to the chief administrator of the orphanage. A police investigation is launched – but it bumps in many obstacles such as corrupts politicians , church officials and cops .

The casting in the movie was nearly perfect and as result the acting was outstanding all over. Worth mentioning in the performance of the young Johnny Morina in the role of Kevin – a 10 years old boy who is being favored by the chief priest in charge and attempts to avoid the abuse by escaping the orphanage – only to be ” returned home ” from the members of the police. Of course I just have to pay my respect to the actor Henry Czerny – who played the central ” evil ” role – for acting so well I trully hated him ( the priest – not the actual actor )

At the end of the review I will recommend this movie. Despite being a very disturbing film it it well worth watching. Of course that is not only my opinion. “The Boys of St. Vincent received very positive reviews from local, national and international critics, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Commonweal, Entertainment Weekly and The New Republic. It was also the recipient of numerous awards both in Canada and internationally. “(source )

“The Boys of St. Vincent” is enlightened film making, and the issues raised, however repugnant, are important and too long have been ignored by film.“

An update :

I just watched the second part of the movie titled ” The Boys of St. Vincent: 15 Years Later ” – as you could imagine that part dealt with the consequences of abuse and the trail to which the responsible for that abuse were finally brought to. The second part does not have that many shocking scenes like the first one – but one would definitely have to hold his breath at times . I expected a bit more from the second part – and was hoping that the stereotypes present in the first one – won`t appear once again – but they did appear reinforced . In fact the movie does not leave you much options to think for yourself – of what happened , could it have been avoided …etc – in addition I found the ending quite disappointing. Still if you have seen the first part – the second one will help you to fill out some details .

Dreaming About You/Anoche Sone Contigo

Dreaming about you is one of the theme movies of the coming of age genre. It is a Mexican movie and is know better with its original name Anoche Sone Contigo. The film is released in 1992 and has the unique atmosphere typical for the films from that time period.

The main protagonist is a 15 years old boy named Toto (Martin Altomaro) who is interested in the things most boys his age are. He hangs around with Quique – a friend of his and while they are not riding their bicycles around the neighborhood they talk about women and use their parents binoculars to spy on the maid that works in the Quique`s house as she undresses in the evenings.

The movie is quite enjoyable to watch as it is guaranteed to bring many memories . Indeed we have all passed trough this period – whatever you choose to call it puberty or coming of age . I laughed quite a bit as I remembered myself being 12 or 13 hiding with the boys from my triathlon team trying to sneak a peak at the girls dressing room. We were quite successful until our trainer caught us – well some of us – a friend of mine were fast enough to climb on the nearest tree so he did not see us.

Back to the movie – Toto`s dreams are about to become true when his older cousin Azucena (Leticia Perdigon) moves to live with him and his mother. He first sees an old photo of her on which she is about 10 – so naturally at first he is quite annoyed by the fact that she would move with them – but that changes quickly when he sees her all grown up. She eventually teaches him a lot of things – love , lust and even intimacy.

Anoche Sone Contigo features some nudity , but nothing tasteless and I thing teens would enjoy it as it will be easier for them to associate with Toto. Women cold also enjoy the film as it on its own is a sneak peak in the male`s coming of age.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xaLgL56BUI

Where the Boys Are: Cinemas of Masculinity and Youth

“Where The Boys Are: Cinemas Of Masculinity And Youth (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Television”

Good books that focus on the coming of age genre in cinema are rare to find . I have been looking for a while and am finally able to present to you the result from those searches.

From what I have read so far – I developed quite an understanding on the issues discussed in the book. It is written in higher style – more suitable for researches than a casual readers – but everyone will be able to get enormous amount of information from it.

The book is providing a good baseline for good discussions which I intent to introduce to this blog alongside the movie reviews you are used to seeing here . I would give you a small example from the introductory pages :

“In film, boyhood has long held a central place. Since the earliest days of cinema—what Tom Gunning has called the “cinema of attractions”—people have been watching the capers of the mischievous boy onscreen. This kind of teasing, half-mocking irresponsibility in the name of pure delight—that quite early became a hallmark of the cinematic boy—made, according to Charles Musser, “a formative contribution to the popular bad-boy genre of early film comedy”

I am sure that you can easily recall at least dozen bad – boy comedies – such as Home Alone , Dennis the Menace, Ciske the Rat- even Son of Rambow ….etc. I think that a discussion for those types of movies would turn quite interesting.

Of course boyhood is not age limited – ( or is it – another future topics for discussion ) and I guess the next quote from the book would prove that to you :

“Even from the beginning of narrative film, then, boys have been seen onscreen as unruly tikes, agents of aggression, symbols of the collapse of the civilized forces of nature as contradistinguished from refined products of socialization and control. Inherent screen boyishness has been a disregard for limitation, a spontaneous expression of freedom, a mocking wit, in general a stylishly choreographed antisocial impulse. And the end product of screen boyhood, the screened man, is either a grown-up continuity of what he always was—blithe rogue, tongue-in-cheek and lovable criminal, awkward adventurer, all of these adamantly presexual and Panic— or a cop-out, a prisoner of the culture he had once fought in the mud puddles but could at some crucial point of transference and surrender resist no longer.”

I hope that this short book introduction will rise some interest in you and you will be looking forwards for the next posts and and topics inspired by the book. Please let me know if you will be interested in discussions inspired by the book Where The Boys Are: Cinemas Of Masculinity And Youth (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Television” via the comment form below this post.

Chernila dlya pyatogo klassa

I have been thinking of doing an article about Chernila dlya pyatogo klassa ( Чернила для пятого класса) for quite a while. The group was formed in 1992 by Sergey Kuznetsov who is the producer and composer behind Steklovata ( СТЕКЛОVАТА ) , New Forms ( НОВЫЕ ФОРМЫ ) , Alis and many other well-known formations . Worth mentioning is the soloist of Chernila dlya pyatogo klassa – Igor Veryaskin who started working with Sergey from the age of twelve . Before that he used to sing in a local choir. He appearance in the group video clips is quite memorable . I picked two of my video clips for this entry – but if you like them you will find many at youtube and the official site of Chernila.

My favorite clip :

ya tebe obyavlau voinu

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bFo05bLm9Y

…and another one which always brings smile to my face :

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKeD7xupENU

The music of Chernila is lyric , with a lot of guitar vibes and even saxophone . The group was lucky that soon after its formation they were Sergey found a sponsor which allowed them to establish a studio they can work at. In the years to come they produced quite a few albums which I enjoy listening to.

Nowadays Igor Veryaskin lives in the capital and composes his own music.

Materials used :

Information about the group at Gosdetstvo.ru , the group`s page at the Sergey Kuznetsov creative studio and the official site of Chernila dlya pyatogo klassa ( which is an excellent resource in terms of music and video clips ). They are fortunate enough to have some information available about them in English including a LastFm profile.

Al otro lado (2004)

Fans of coming of age movies won`t be disappointed – neither the one who expect well made drama. Yet I expected a bit more from a film I have heard a lot of. Al otro lado combines three stores in one film but I have seen more successful usage of that formula . It is not that I did not like the movie – or felt for the stories told it it – just felt that it could have done better.

Al otro lado offers a new view to a rather familiar phenomenon these days – the immigration. On that issue my view is pretty liberal as I believe that the world today is more global and the immigrants are never part of the economical problems but its solution. In fact I would recommend this film for those of you who have a more conservative opinion on the immigration – hoping that seeing it will prove beneficial for you.

In the film we follow the experiences of 2 boys and a girl from different parts of the world whose fathers have left their countries in search of work or better opportunities . We are exposed to the impact a decision like that may have on a child and the family as a whole . The coming of age theme in here lies in the realizations that the three protagonists make about the word around them and about Al otro lado ( the other side ).

The movie cast is well selected. Almost immediately I recognized of of the actors in the film Adrian Alsono – who I have seen in the masterpiece Innocent Voices . This time his role was more central to the story ( 1/3rd of it was devoted to him more or less ) . Again he acted very well successfully conveying his emotions to the viewers – which is one of the most important tasks for every actor. He has an official web site and YouTube channel so if you like his acting feel free to explore them.

Another familiar actor is Jorge Milo who you may remember from Deep Silence or more likely from Viva Cuba .

Al otro lado has its sentimental moments – and they were all acted well trough which brought some tears in my eyes . Another notable thing is its soundtrack – a lot of guitars in it and after En Tu Ausencia I feel that I developed some kind of affiliated to guitars .

Final words – not the best movie out there , but worth seeing never the less. Feel free to share your own impressions on it or the subjects it touches via comments .

TheSkyKid.com

TheSKyKid.com