Movie Review: Mean Creek
On a recent trip to the mall, I picked up a movie I’d been hearing about from a friend online. I was lucky, because it was the only one on the shelf, and I had just enough money to get that, a volume of .hack, and a soda. The rest of the night, I couldn’t keep my hands off the case, just itching to watch it. I was very glad when I finally did.
The movie I bought was Mean Creek, released in 2004 to limited areas. Paramount Classics, a division of Paramount that helps independent films to be released in America, recently released it on DVD. The story, written and directed by Jacob Estes, is about a group of teens from a small town in Oregon. Sam, played my Rory Culkin, has once again been beaten up by the school bully, George (Josh Peck). While talking to his brother, Rocky (Trevor Morgan), the following night, the two decide to humiliate George worse than he could ever do to Sam. Problems arise, as they always do, and nothing turns out like planned.
The film, which recently won the John Cassavettes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards, has been compared to classics like the chilling Deliverance, and the coming-of-age staple Stand By Me. While it does retain aspects of those movies, such as the sense of paranoia and betrayal interlaced with an after school special moral, Mean Creek definitely stands on it’s own as a film for our generation. In an America were school violence has made the front page, we never think of what the consequences really are. Estes took that concept and made it live, with dark undertones that, oddly enough, highlight the movie and make it that much more real.
The main cast, composed of teenagers ranging in age from eleven to nineteen, has chemistry normally only seen in shows that have been running for years. In many ways, you forget that you’re watching teenagers playing teenagers, and just end up taking it all in. The cast brings in some very emotional scenes very well, particularly in the falling action of the film’s plot.
Now that I’m done gushing over the film, there are a few things left to pick at. First and foremost is the rating. Mean Creek is rated “R” for strong language, sexual references and drug use among the underage characters. I’m a little torn on this, with my gut feeling being that not enough people that should see this will be able to. But we have to remember that society emulates what is shot out at us by the media, and vice versa. I’m afraid that, were the film rated PG-13, the younger audience would pick up the more detestable habits of the characters. I do not condone any of the illegal acts depicted in the movie, and I would hate to see my younger neighbor start any of those after seeing the film. One of the things that redeems this for me is that two of the characters, Millie (Carly Schroeder) and Clyde (Ryan Kelley), are both seen as the most straight edge of the group, Millie having been completely abstinent, and Clyde refusing to smoke.
Another aspect of the film that bothered me was the lack of attention paid by the parents of the kids. No, I don’t think the director got it wrong, that parents really do watch over us more. Estes showed how real the world of the movie could be by having as little of the parents in the movie as possible, because it really seems like parents, today, don’t pay enough attention to us, their kids. In cases of teen against teen violence, it’s often the parents, and other adults, to blame for not being here for us. That’s the case in this movie, and it scares me that it’s the case, sometimes, in the real world.
Over all, Mean Creek is a movie with the right message for an audience it just can’t reach given it’s content. The cast is incredible, the writing is deep, and the vision shows the world how it really is: dark and dangerous. If you can, go rent this movie. If you don’t like it, at least you tried it out. For that, I give you all four stars.
For more information on Mean Creek, you can hop onto a computer and check out http://www.meancreekmovie.com, or you can search the Internet Movie Database at http://www.imdb.com.
The movie I bought was Mean Creek, released in 2004 to limited areas. Paramount Classics, a division of Paramount that helps independent films to be released in America, recently released it on DVD. The story, written and directed by Jacob Estes, is about a group of teens from a small town in Oregon. Sam, played my Rory Culkin, has once again been beaten up by the school bully, George (Josh Peck). While talking to his brother, Rocky (Trevor Morgan), the following night, the two decide to humiliate George worse than he could ever do to Sam. Problems arise, as they always do, and nothing turns out like planned.
The film, which recently won the John Cassavettes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards, has been compared to classics like the chilling Deliverance, and the coming-of-age staple Stand By Me. While it does retain aspects of those movies, such as the sense of paranoia and betrayal interlaced with an after school special moral, Mean Creek definitely stands on it’s own as a film for our generation. In an America were school violence has made the front page, we never think of what the consequences really are. Estes took that concept and made it live, with dark undertones that, oddly enough, highlight the movie and make it that much more real.
The main cast, composed of teenagers ranging in age from eleven to nineteen, has chemistry normally only seen in shows that have been running for years. In many ways, you forget that you’re watching teenagers playing teenagers, and just end up taking it all in. The cast brings in some very emotional scenes very well, particularly in the falling action of the film’s plot.
Now that I’m done gushing over the film, there are a few things left to pick at. First and foremost is the rating. Mean Creek is rated “R” for strong language, sexual references and drug use among the underage characters. I’m a little torn on this, with my gut feeling being that not enough people that should see this will be able to. But we have to remember that society emulates what is shot out at us by the media, and vice versa. I’m afraid that, were the film rated PG-13, the younger audience would pick up the more detestable habits of the characters. I do not condone any of the illegal acts depicted in the movie, and I would hate to see my younger neighbor start any of those after seeing the film. One of the things that redeems this for me is that two of the characters, Millie (Carly Schroeder) and Clyde (Ryan Kelley), are both seen as the most straight edge of the group, Millie having been completely abstinent, and Clyde refusing to smoke.
Another aspect of the film that bothered me was the lack of attention paid by the parents of the kids. No, I don’t think the director got it wrong, that parents really do watch over us more. Estes showed how real the world of the movie could be by having as little of the parents in the movie as possible, because it really seems like parents, today, don’t pay enough attention to us, their kids. In cases of teen against teen violence, it’s often the parents, and other adults, to blame for not being here for us. That’s the case in this movie, and it scares me that it’s the case, sometimes, in the real world.
Over all, Mean Creek is a movie with the right message for an audience it just can’t reach given it’s content. The cast is incredible, the writing is deep, and the vision shows the world how it really is: dark and dangerous. If you can, go rent this movie. If you don’t like it, at least you tried it out. For that, I give you all four stars.
For more information on Mean Creek, you can hop onto a computer and check out http://www.meancreekmovie.com, or you can search the Internet Movie Database at http://www.imdb.com.