Film Reviews

Alpha Dog

• Rating:
• Director: Nick Cassavetes
• Starring: Ben Foster
• Details: US / 115mins (18).

Based on the real life case of how Jesse James Hollywood became the youngest person to be on the FBI's most wanted list, Alpha Dog is writer-director Nick Cassavetes's interpretation of those events in California, 1999, and in the process delivers, arguably, this generation's Less Than Zero. Teenager Johnny Truelove (Hirsch) is from a wealthy family, but that hasn't stopped him being the youngest drug dealer around. Meth-addict Jake Mazurksy (Foster) owes him money and because he can't pay, Truelove kidnaps his younger brother Zach (Yelchin). Left in the care of Truelove's buddy Frankie (Timberlake), Zach comes down with a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome and delights in the free drugs and wanton sex that come with the parties Frankie drags him along to. However, the police get involved and things turn serious. Alpha Dog is for those who like their movies to be downers, that show the banality of evil and hold a mirror up to a soulless and vacuous youth culture (re: Larry Clark's Kids). Cassavetes's teenagers have nothing to live for except getting high, having sex and dyeing their bodies with white supremacist tattoos (a theme that strangely isn't referred to in the story). One kid wears a t-shirt with 'everything is wrong' typed across it. The acting on show, because it's such a large cast of mostly unknowns, veers from the exciting to the terrible - especially when they act stoned. The highlights include the manic Ben Foster, who comes across like Crispin Glover on speed, Hirsch's evil eye, Yelchin as the innocent hostage and even Justin Timberlake weighs in with a meaty performance. Harry Dean Stanton, Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis all take generous backseats to the new faces.

Review by Gavin Burke