This one caught me off-guard. Basically a prison movie, like Cool Hand Luke, only in a kid's orange jumpsuit. Lots of great details: the shot of the desert pockmarked by thousands of holes, the kids tossing their shovels in a big pile as they come back from their duty, the special shovel that's a little smaller than the others. And it's pretty tough, too: the kids treat each other shittily without apology (I could've sworn one of them muttered "motherfucker", but obviously that's impossible), there's a surprising amount of violence (I found the racially-motivated murder of one character gut-wrenching), and then there's Tim Blake Nelson. All of the acting is superb (including Shia LaBeouf -- that guy's gonna be amazing when he hits his thirties), but Nelson creates a portrait of petty, human-sized evil, one that lurks behind a smile and a suspect title of "Doctor" that's jaw-dropping. His jovial "Go on, hit 'em" bit is horrifying.
Unfortunately, reading through Theo Panyide's review, I realized another reason for my high rating: some of the plot moments that were explicitly foreshadowed (like the identity of the bandit and the significance of Zero's last name), I totally didn't pick up on. (I blame my sprawled-on-the-couch-okay-On Demand movie-impress-me posture.) So, what was probably obvious to every other viewer had the force of revelation to me, rather than the soft thud of the other shoe finally dropping. I can imagine the rating going down on a second viewing.
But then again, Tim Blake Nelson is so awesome, maybe not.
Where we saw it: tv | We deign to rate it: outta 100I do remember it being overly tidy. But then, I also remember it being a hell of a lot better than I was expecting anyway.
And I also remember Tim Blake Nelson proving once again that he should be declared a national treasure.
Posted by: Steve at May 27, 2004 06:09 PM