Stealing Cars

I highly recommend this movie. It's one of those movies that worth watching. Good performances. The main character, a really clever and complex boy will make you more and more interested. The performance by Emory Cohen is very powerful. I have to say that this movie caught me since the beginning. If you feel a particular interest in independent films, you should watch this one.

Winner of the new Zeitgeist Award at the L.A. Film Festival, Stealing Cars feels like if Starred Up wanted to be Cool Hand Luke featuring Antoine-Olivier Pilon from Mommy. Both Stealing Cars and Mommy think their lead is hilarious, tragic and charming, and many of the latter's fans agree, but I found Pilon unbearable. Not to reel Xavier Dolan's film into this criticism, but both these films hinge on their protagonists. Swap Pilon for Emory Cohen for Stealing Cars and it's a very quick reminder why most consider The Place Beyond The Pines troublesome in its third act. I'm concerned that Cohen may be too good at playing an irritating young criminal. I just like seeing him get punched.

The film opens with a clear homage to Cool Hand. Emory Cohen's Billy steals a car, and the next scene we're in a Burnville Camp For Boys, an analogy for life's hardships. The film details his relationships with his fellow inmates, the guards, various staff, warden, police, a female nurse at the facility, and his parents in any jumbled order that resembles a plot towards his potential rehabilitation. He makes enemies, earns sympathies, leads teams, impresses at the least likely times, and so on. It's a script that's been gestating since the mid-90s and it's hard to ignore that it may have grown too kind to its protagonist. Billy mouths off to every authority figure and escapes three times without serious repercussions.

Set aside its clumsy character study and Stealing Cars does have good intentions in its portrayal of problematic detention facilities. Punishment only breeds deeper resentment and a desire to escape. It'd hit harder if its logic was as gritty as its style, though it's not quite as rough as Starred Up. In one scene, Billy has memorized an entire passage of Fahrenheit 451 because of his photographic memory, and while characters are just as surprised as us, it feels like a step into the extraordinary that's just tacked on. The warden makes cleaning his car a dream job for the inmates, as if that's not asking for trouble. He's then also astonished Billy knows Johnny Cash. Fortunately, these unconvincing examples are executed with such earnestness by director Bradley Kaplan that it doesn't toe the line into nausea, and instead establishes this as merely the tone of the film.

It's assisted by a set of familiar faces in the supporting adult cast. Paul Sparks is barely recognizable compared to his sniggering Boardwalk Empire role and a bright spark in the film as a drill sergeant-esque guard. William H. Macy shows his face briefly as Billy's father and adds his screen presence to the film's production value. Felicity Huffman has an emotional one-scene wonder as his mother that absolutely begs for more time with her character. Mike Epps also shines in his brief screen time. John Leguizamo is solid, but suffers the most from the aforementioned flaws in the writing. It's hard to deny that Emory Cohen has the confidence for this role and his charisma isn't necessarily misguided, he does contribute to the spirit of the film, it's perhaps just a matter of taste. Stealing Cars probably wasn't the wisest choice for L.A. Film Festival's award, but I'm sure there were worse on the slate.

6/10

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The twist and the action in the last ten or fifteen minutes give a taste of how truly memorable this film could have been, but the eighty minutes of set-up show how lazy and delusional filmmakers can be. There is an overt reference to A Bronx Tale but far too much harking back to The Breakfast Club and similar, with unlikeable characters in unrealistic situations. Billy would never have got away with the rambling smart-arse speechmaking on show here, but would have been told to sit down and STFU (at best) or, more likely, punched in the mouth.

The distinction between the gangs is underplayed unless it is critical to a plot point, at which time it feels forced. The kindly sheriff, damaged nurse and bullying guard stereotypes rely on one actor in each role, and we are expected to believe they work almost around the clock and with no support. There is no suggestion that education extends beyond reading one book, sport involves more than knocking one character to the ground repeatedly, or rehabilitation extends beyond polishing the boss's car. The annual building project is as believable as finding Elvis on the moon.

Most of the film is made up of red herrings and blind alleys, with very occasional flashbacks that confuse rather than illuminate. Even after seeing the twist I am not convinced I fully understood what they were trying to say but by that stage I was making up my own story.

The end is forced melodrama but need not have been. There was a great film here struggling to get out.

After a promising first half, the second half felt like the writer and/or director quit and was replaced by someone who filled the movie with clichés in what amounted to a mess filled with continuity issues.

Emory Cohen was great and carried this movie. I watched this movie for him and he did not disappoint.

The cop's actions in the final act? C'mon man.....

This is one of those films which didn't have too much cash to splash but tries to counter that with meaningful story and perhaps a little more alternative approach. Stealing Cars focuses around a teenage boy who basically has emotionally fallen apart, but rather than being sad and isolated starts to "rebel" and does some no good.

And the film does quite a few things right, actually. It keeps the viewers guessing what's going on until the very end and has some fine twists there. But it is almost good and really misses hardly making the experience feel logical and gives the overall impression of cutting too many corners.

Let's start with the title - it has almost nothing to do with car stealing, so anyone hoping to see some sort of Gone in 60 Seconds style movie will be vastly disappointed. Sometimes, of course, this kind of title with hidden meaning is completely fine, but on this certain instance, this almost feels like lying. Instead, this is essentially a prison movie, which takes place in the juvy. We see our main character Billy gaining the trust and respect of others thanks to his rather charismatic behavior and finally revealing us the key problem of his mindset.

The problem there is that the writing really doesn't support that. Billy is made so incredibly obnoxious and stupid (in many ways) that it gets almost impossible to take him seriously. He often gives some really weird speeches, disobeys the orders and gets the whole collective in trouble. Still none of his comrades seemed to care and started to look him up, if anything else. The good side of the character was that he really didn't care what would come to him. He was literally fearless and this gave him a little credibility, but all in all was still rather unbelievable.

Even though it seemingly was more of an alternative film, it still contains many clichés - the outcast, the sick kid, who befriends Billy, hot nurse who became a love interest for Billy and finally - surprise, surprise - a rather cruel warden. OK, he wasn't too mean, like wardens in many similar movies, but the sense of this heavily clichéd character was definitely present. And Billy himself was also a good talented kid with exceptional memory gone bad. The film used some non linear storytelling, but it only focused around the key point and could have told us a little more background.

All the supporting characters were somehow dull and didn't have much depth. It was almost as if they just were there and even if they seemed to have a purpose, most of them never really opened up and didn't add much to the plot.

Ultimately Stealing Cars is not a great film. On a positive note this is somewhat psychological trip which dwells into a confused mind, has few nice twists and isn't all that predictable. I understand what the producers wanted to show us, but the way it was constructed wasn't particularly convincing. Main problems are dull side characters and a monotonous plot which is hard to take seriously because of the oddly acting Billy.

And one last time - that title....