Philly Film Fest Picks: Criminally Insane!
SPOTLIGHT ON: Eighteen, Canada, 95 min., Director: Richard Bell
Eighteen-year-old, self-loathing street kid Pip (Paul Anthony) flits from one extreme, ridiculous plot development to the sloppy next in this convoluted series of overdramatic scenes. To compare his silly plight to his grandfather’s World War I experience is an unconvincing parallel. As a ruthless manipulator, he cons and pawns his way into the hearts of sympathetic fools. Are we to believe that a gay prostitute, girl-babe and priest (yes, Alan Cumming fans, start your slathering) all turn to mush for the ripe stench of this capital-A asshole? Cheesy music just means no. The homoerotic tone that underlines the entire film is beat to a non-orgasmic death. Pip’s bitchy, K-Fed/Pretty Woman antics are not smooth, either. This is when the audience is supposed to swoon over the unlikable character. We choose to laugh when our flawed anti-hero, during a dream in which his grandfather doles out a swift punch to his gut, is told to “DO SOMETHING”. The pivotal hallucination produces vomit and insta-bliss for Pip and Co., but our sickening displeasure that the dude will live to bang on through nineteen and, shudder, maybe even more. ó Kelly White
Playing: Ritz East, 9:30pm today; 2:30pm Monday; 2:15pm Wednesday.
ALSO RECOMMENDED:
These Girls: David Boreanaz ó thatís Lilí Dave Roberts Jr. to you and me ó plays a 30-something pot farmer up to his ears in young Canuck punani! Aye, but itís driving him ka-ray-zayyyyy!
The Camden 28: Intriguing doc about a legendary anti-war (Vietnam era) protest/break-in just across the BFB. Also awesome to look at for potential style-takes, especially sideburns, haberdashery, etc.
Low Profile: All joking aside, this one seems like one of the most interesting pics of the entire fest: A bored German teen, looking for something, anything out the stultifying suburban norm of his young life, begins confessing to crimes he has not committed around the city. Promises to be that amazing German mixture of dark and just, you know, kind of sickly funny.
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