Quick takes on 5 Indie films

I didn’t set out to do this on purpose, but ended up watching 5 films in a row that all featured subjects involving people on the fringes of society, mostly the poor but also the disenchanted. Mobile Homes is about a family eking out an existence beyond the fringe. Ali and her boyfriend Evan are total white trash, subjecting her son Bone to a life he should not be a part of at any age, much less the 8 years he has. They bet on cockfighting, Evan has Bone sell drugs, and they float from motel room to motel room with nothing permanent in their lives. One night Evan hits Ali and she and Bone run for it, spending the night in a mobile home under construction. The next day they meet the contractor building the homes, Robert. Robert allows them to stay, offering Ali and Bone some normalcy for perhaps the first time in Bone’s life, in exchange for Ali working around the site. Their short-lived idyllic setting is put to the test when Ali spots Evan’s van, and she can’t help herself but to accept him back. As bad a mother as Ali is, Evan cares for nothing but himself. It’s a tough film to watch; even the opening scene when Ali is trying to get Bone into a shelter, basically to abandon him so she and Evan can do their thing, and the receptionist tells her that Bone just walked out the door, Ali isn’t dismayed at all, quipping, “He knows how to get home.” That sets the table for the kind of people that make up this little trio. I liked the film all right, and I think Imogen Poots is really good as Ali, but the camera work doesn’t do her any favors to show off her talents. Like a lot of independent films these days, they have too much “shaky camera syndrome” in an effort to make it feel “real.” Decent film for indie movie lovers.

Savage Youth is another better-than-average indie film, and apparently based on a true story (though I admit I didn’t look up any info on it to verify). The first 20 or so minutes introduce us to the half dozen main characters, a group of young 20-somethings that are acting like a lot of kids these days. There’s a rough-and-tumble guy, his artistic girlfriend, her slutty friend, a closet gay man who acts tough around his friends, and, on the other side of town, a pair of black brothers who can’t escape the color of their skin to succeed in life. But just because most of the characters seem a little aimless, don’t think that the movie itself doesn’t have an endgame. It builds quietly but surely to a tremendous climax. Like a lot of low budget films, there’s a mixed bag of acting chops in this one. Some are really great, others not so much (there’s definitely some over-acting here and there), but the quiet tension and slow-building suspense get you past the rough patches, and I really enjoyed this one too. Bring your patience, there’s not a lot of “action” to carry the story, but some of the performances are really quite good, especially the subtle styles of Grace Victoria Cox as Elena and Tequan Richmond as Gabe.

We the Coyotes (retitled Anywhere With You upon release in the USA) follows a young couple, Amanda and Jake, as they move to LA for a fresh start, but mostly to escape Amanda’s disapproving parents, who see Jake as a loser/floater/stoner with no ambition. Amanda has a job interview lined up and they are planning on staying with her older sister for a few days until they get established, but a family fight leaves them without a place to stay, and the job doesn’t pan out. Later in the day, their car gets towed and they spend all the rest of their cash on getting it back. Broke and homeless on their first day in the city, they have no options. Amanda is portrayed by Amanda Saylor, better known as the snotty daughter in the first few seasons of Homeland, the girl everyone loved to hate. She’s just not very good, and shows the same perplexed looks now as she did on that show 7-8 years ago as a kid. The film is as aimless as its characters, and the ending is just dumb, because (SPOILER) they get super excited that Jake unexpectedly lands a minimum wage job and Amanda becomes a “manager” for a homeless local musician. Yay, we can afford to stay in LA! Really?

Concrete Kids is about a couple kids (no older than 10 it seems) who set off across LA over night to reach the Staples Center by morning for a silly contest where the winner gets $1000. Edison is from a solid middle class family and is doing it for the adventure of it, but Sage comes from a poor family and really wants the cash to prevent being evicted. The beginning felt pretty cliché, skateboarder kids and all. I don’t know why I thought I’d like this one; I hate child actors, because they usually deliver their lines like they are reading a book in front of class and their mannerisms seem forced because (nearly always) they are just doing exactly what an adult told them to do. Those observations are true here again, but the film isn’t terrible. It is mostly about Sage (who, as a poor kid, is exposed to a lot more than his friend) opening Edison’s eyes to the world around him, warts and all. Edison begins by being scared of everything from the bus to the metro to the plentiful homeless around the city, but comes out of his shell as the night progresses. However, Sage isn’t the only one with problems, and Edison’s come to light at the end. Fairly ho-hum film, nothing to get too excited over.

Little Woods takes place in a small town in North Dakota and follows two sisters, Ollie and Deb, who are at a crossroads. Ollie is just getting done with her probation after having been arrested crossing the border with Canada with a backpack full of prescription drugs. She had been going up there to buy, and giving pain pills to their dying mother and selling the rest for cash on the street. Though she’s the one with the record, sister Deb is really the trouble child. Ollie was just doing what she needed to do to take care of mom, but Deb has one child already, another on the way, and the father is a drunk and a dead beat. Deb’s been living out of a trailer under threat of eviction, and the family house that Ollie is staying in now that mom has passed is also back due on taxes and mortgage. With money due on the house and no prospects of a decent job on the horizon, Ollie agrees to make one more drug run to get them in the clear. At the same time, Deb decides to have an abortion, but since they can’t afford it in the states, she will go north with Ollie and have it done in Canada. The film was marketed as a western (not really, though it does take place in the back woods of the northern frontier) and thriller (not really again, though at times it has a quiet suspense), it is more of a family drama. I thought it was just all right, not worth a second viewing, but the two leads, Tessa Thompson and Lily James, both give stellar performances. Thompson has gained traction in the last five years with roles in Selma, the Creed films, and as Valkyrie in Avengers (and a good part in the HBO Westworld show). James too is on the rise lately after parts in Baby Driver, the latest Mamma Mia sequel, and Yesterday. However, both are better in this film than anything I’d seen before. It is worth watching once for their performances alone.