Blackbird

source: Blackbird

This low budget film stars Connor Jessup as Sean, a bright but lonely teenanger who dresses in Goth clothing. He makes the mistake of taking an interest in another schoolmate's - a jock - girlfriend. This leads to a confrontation which leads to Sean making an online threat. The police come to his house and find some disturbing material and some of his father's hunting rifles unsecured. This leads to a misunderstanding of Sean's intentions - authorities assume the worst and Sean and his father deal with the fallout. This is a good characther study of a teenager who is forced to re-evluate his life as it goes thru an upheaval due to changed circumstances. The film is uniformly well acted and well paced. One feels symapthy for Sean despite even as we see him make mistakes. The film leaves off with many issues not resolved, which is good in this case as we know life is never simple.

I watched this movie only because it had Connor Jessup, who I have followed since Falling Skies. For the most part, I really loved this movie. The acting was great, the story was powerful, and the main characters were anything but one-dimensional. The one thing that made it hard for me to love the movie was the "ending". I put it in quotes because the movie didn't really end, it just stopped. While I don't need to have a feel-good, neatly wrapped ending, I do think a movie needs an ending with some finality, even if it is an ending to that part of the story before the next part starts. Other than the ending, I really did love the movie. It was powerful, emotional, and not always comfortable to watch. But it was (excluding the ending) worth it.

This film did a excellent job showing how social media and status has turned are world upside down.

Sean Randall (Connor Jessup) is sleeping when his home is raided by the police. They had found postings that seem to indicate a future attack. Sean is an alienated metal goth teen who gets picked on by the hockey jock. Hockey girlfriend Deanna Roy (Alexia Fast) is the perfect princess who falls for the outsider weirdo. As often is the case with this type of movie, there are stereotypes. Sometimes it's annoying and probably wrong. For example, the cop would not be confrontational like that. A good cop would try to befriend the suspect and get him to talk openly. He should be playing good cop. Of course, everything is stacked up against him including his weak lawyer, angry villagers, and sadistic prison mates. It's all very standard. Also I don't like his jacket. It's a little too standard. The only thing non-standard is the sentencing. I expected much worst. It makes no sense that the judge would be lenient in any way. Sean's self-destructive nature can be infuriating. Then there is the ending which doesn't fit for me.

A well-produced, well-acted movie about a would-be perp who redeems himself, and a community that goes way overboard.

Great movie about life, and little mistakes that a child will be pushed into making huge, that just happens to be Canadian. Though slow to start, this is a very well acted and directed movie that has a great look and feel all the way through. The town feels real, and the people really feel like they are from this town. I honestly found it very easy to relate to the characters in this movie, every one of them, like personalities of one mixed up mind. This poor kid makes the simplest mistakes, and a decade or so back that would have been it, but times are changed, and people have to take everything much more seriously so there must be consequences. Think Bad Boys with Sean Penn but more contemporary, and far less rapie. The real meat of this story though happens half way through and all the way to the end, once our hero finally really takes his first steps towards joining, and stops rebelling. I was impressed with the over all feel of the movie, and there were some very good tense scenes that were dealt with very truthfully. I obviously really Enjoyed this one, and I know once you get past the slow start, it's one you will remember long afterward.

A cliché story. Lots of cliché moments. The lack of a feel-good ending where one might be expected is itself being cliché these days (although the film does end on a high note, just not a sickeningly sweet one). Good direction. Adequate cinematography. Rather good cast. That doesn't sound like an 8 to you? Well, it's an 8 to me. Compared to the other movies I've seen recently this was a breath of fresh air. The cast really is excellent. The script is mostly understated with a few slip-ups. The characters aren't believable, but hey, they do a good enough job being unbelievable. This movie shows what talented, meticulous filmmakers can do with a good cast and without much money. The result is more entertaining than explosions and special effects. Too bad more people don't feel that way. I'd love to see more movies like this. To me, they're much more absorbing than what's being made in bulk these days. Praise aside, I feel like there was a definite missed opportunity to explore some interesting or unique elements. The jail scenes were begging for some psychedelic flashes or a breakdown of reality in some way. Think the ant scene from Oldboy or the rabbit dream sequence from Sexy Beast. That's just my inclination though. Either way, I can't rate what wasn't in the movie, only what was. This one is good all the way around.

Sean Randall (Conner Jessup) is a troubled teen in remote Canada who lives with his dad (Michael Buie) - who has a lot of unsecured guns he uses for hunting. Sean is bullied at school and is urged to take out his anger by writing a story about it. His story includes a massacre at school and winds up in the hands of the authorities who assume it's a threat. And things only get worse when he's confined to a lockup for wayward youth. The first part of the film was strong, because the character was very angry, unrepentant, and real. And then, unfortunately, the writer- director (Jason Buxton) decided to tack on a critique of Canadian youth detention facilities as part of the story. The critique was weak and only served to blunt the force of Sean's individual story. Except for the criticism above, the film was well-written, well acted and looked great considering the shoe-string budget. The film points out that we really need to examine the things that automatically raise our fears to see if they are real or just over- reactions to situations that don't nicely fit into our comfort zone. Let's hope it gets a US release.

I was unable to guess what route this film was going to take, it could have gone several routes but the one it chose was thought provoking, intelligent and beautifully pitched. The acting was first class, I'd only really seen Connor Jessup in Falling Skies - which I do like - and was pleased to see a very fine performance here. Michael Buie was superb as his dad and all other cast members were strong and believable. At times there was the chance for the movie to fall into a cliché but it managed to avoid that every time with some aplomb. In short, this is a fine film that I would highly recommend. I note that this is the writer/directors first feature, I very much look forward to his next project.