SXSW11-96 Minutes
Go steal your not-daddy’s car.
96 Minutes (2011)
Directed by: Aimee Lagos
Written by: Aimee Lagos
I gotta admit, I am super fuckin’ tired of these kinds of movies. More on that in a minute, though.
Two young girls (Brittany Snow and Christian Serratos) are having a pretty rough day. One just found out that her dad can’t make it to her college graduation and the other just found out that her boyfriend is cheating on her and then she promptly wrecked her car.
Two young boys (Evan Ross and Jonathan Michael Trautmann) are having a pretty rough time of it, too. One was just harassed by the cops on his way home from college, the other was just told that he had to go through a pretty rough initiation to become part of a gang that really doesn’t want him as a member.
Guess the race of all of these characters and you win…well, nothing, because it’s pretty goddamn easy.
These four kids meet up in an explosion of violence and accidental racism.
This movie, just like Crash before it, does its very best to show us how terrible racism is and how these kids are stuck in their lot because of where they grew up, but how they could be so different if they only tried…but then it all unravels with one line from the schoolboy’s mouth. That’s the moment that the movie says, “Oh, but they’re really, deep down, all the same.” It actually pissed me off.
The problem is that the movie itself is really well made and VERY well acted. There isn’t a weak link on that side of things. Evan is especially good as the kid who just wants a better life for himself. I REALLY hoped that he wouldn’t turn into a stereotype. Unfortunately, Amiee Lagos didn’t see any other way out for him. Sigh…
I wish that I could fully recommend this movie, but besides it being a “been there, done that” movie, it just keeps the stereotypes going…down to the “magical black man.” (Only older black men are any good, you see. But they still get hassled by The Man.)
I was going to see another movie tonight but, apparently, they gave out badges to everyone in town to go see Super. The badge line was all the way around the Paramount and then split to the other side of the street.
Wow. How much did they oversell this festival this year?
