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All Movie Info
Starring:
Bruce Willis, Matthew Barry, Emile Hirsch, Vincent Kartheiser, Justin Timberlake, Shawn Hatosy, Alex Solowitz, Harry Dean Stanton, Ben Foster, Laura Nativo, Fernando Vargas, Alec Vigil, Frank Cassavetes, Nicole Dubos, Regina Rice
Directed By:
Nick Cassavetes
Written By:
Nick Cassavetes
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Alpha Dog (2007)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
January 10th, 2008
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'Alpha Dog' is a gritty, depressing movie about self-destructive and stupid young criminals, and I emphasize the latter word, which describes their behavior more accurately than any other. It is based on a true story, as we are reminded on multiple occasions, lest we forget. The central story focuses on Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch), a drug dealer in an upscale region of California, who became the youngest person ever to appear on the FBI's Most Wanted List, for masterminding and supervising the kidnapping and murder of a 15-year-old named Zack (Anton Yelchin), whose brother,. Jake (Ben Foster) owes a sizable debt to Johnny and is reluctant to pay. Johnny has a gang of faithful lackeys, the most miserably moronic and pathetic of them is Elvis Schmidt (Shawn Hatosy), who does whatever he is told without exception. Another is Frankie (Justin Timberlake), who actually does have a shred of sense and decency, and comes to care about Zack after he is forced to look after him while Johnny tries to figure out what to do with the kid, who is bored with his affluent Jewish family and rebels by smoking pot and drinking, and is eager to lose his virginity, and the sluts who hang around with Frankie and Johnny can see to that, and Zack thinks they are all cool, and doesn't want to go back to his worried, hysterical mother Olivia (Sharon Stone), who was so overprotective of him and treated him like a baby.
Johnny's father, Sonny (Bruce Willis) apparently has mafia connections, or something, since he helps Johnny run his business and even bails him out when he gets into trouble with the cops. There is also a character played by Harry Dean Stanton, Cosmo, who always hangs around with Sonny, I never understood who he was exactly, but he is usually always drunk, and is entertaining to watch. Frankie's dad is a botanist, who grows marijuana in his backyard, and likes to have parties, leaving Frankie to clean up the mess the next morning. These deadbeat parents are certainly part of the overarching problem, which why these terribly misguided and irresponsible children do what they do. Jake is a hopeless drug addict, on good terms with Zack, but distant from his father Butch and stepmom (I am guessing) Olivia, both of whom believe him to be a bad influence, which is certainly quite true. Jake is a Jewish skinhead, violent and mentally unstable, whose angry outbursts are so comically over-the-top, I cannot think one is supposed to do anything other than laugh at them. Every vein and muscle in his face and neck is visible as he yells and screams at people or into telephones, or when he destroys property or gets into fights, and he is a formidable fighter, which is why Johnny never wants to confront him face-to-face, but rather wants to put pressure on him by abducting Zack. Now, here is a dilemma for you.
Johnny asks a lawyer about the legal consequences of kidnapping somebody; if the person is being held for ransom, then the sentence would involve life imprisonment. After some thought (probably very little), Johnny decides it would be better to kill Zack and hide his body hoping the police would never find it; if the body was found, then Johnny and all those involved in the murder would face the death penalty. Frankie has reservations about this, and tries to prevent it, to some degree, but not very effectively. Sonny advises Johnny to find a different solution. But it all ends disastrously for pretty much everybody.
It is fascinating to watch these events unfold, even if the characters' stupidity is off-putting and implausible. Timberlake's performance is surprisingly good, and he obviously exploits his own sex appeal; he spends a majority of his screen time shirtless, occasionally sporting a ridiculous hat. But he has charisma and intensity, though admittedly more of the former than the latter. Yelchin is good as the naïve teen who develops Stockholm syndrome. Hirsch lacks the menace or ferocity to be a drug kingpin and gang leader; Foster would have been a better choice. But then Foster often borders on caricature. I don't know how closely this movie follows the actual case it is based on, but there is a tragic ending to both. The script must have been the product of a bet, for Nick Cassevetes to see how many times he could use the f-word, which shows up in nearly every line of spoken dialogue, along with street jargon like "dawg" and "my boy" and proving that when white people talk like this, it just isn't that cool.
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