Sam Merrick isn't among the most popular kids at school. When he is bullied and beaten up by George, Sam's older brother Rocky and his friends Clyde and Marty devise a plan to get back at the bully for his actions. They invite George to a fake birthday party for Sam on the river, intent on embarrassing him by making him walk home naked after a game of truth-or-dare. Unfortunately, the plan backfires in the worst way possible, forcing them all to deal with the consequences. Jacob Aaron Estes' Mean Creek is an impressive first feature that is a unique twist on coming of age stories, telling a story of impressive moral complexity while touching on social complexities of youth. From a narrative perspective, Mean Creek is a tight, suspenseful thriller with engaging and multidimensional characters that makes it hard to dislike. Thematically, the film subtlety touches on bullying, arguing that is isn't a simple problem but a complex cycle, stemming from both environmental and primal urges of the bully to take power from someone else. The film could have gone further in this examination but it instead moves on to the loss of innocence and moral complexities revolving around death, guilt, and forgiveness. Mean Creek shows us a group of young people who abruptly find their innocence completely shattered after a tragedy, capturing the confrontation each of them is forced to make with their own morality.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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