Thumper

I Really enjoyed this! Im 58 and this brings back memories from when i was 16 and in that kind of life...Its been so long ago ,it seems like another lifetime..when i see this contemporary drama ,i find it shocking and SAD that things are still so much the same for kids and the drug culture after 42 yrs...That lifestyle, where kids hand out, looking to get high, the way they acted in the movie, is so true to life..the Drug dealer, done by pablo was outstanding! the volatile,quiet one moment,menacing the next,the quality and intensity he brought to the role nailed it..i have know people who acted just like that ! I actually thought from the promo poster that the lead actor was Jon Bernthal ...i was shocked to find ot was Pablo, it was the shaved head that made the resemblence..I love seeing Eliza from the 100, an awesome series!! cant wait for that to return..anyway they rocked their roles, and the supporting actors got the stereotypical drug culture yoyths down pat..again it was sad to see that todays kids were so much like the kids of 40 yrs ago,its like that lifestyle is in a time bubble and seems forever the same..i would hope that todays youth were less inclined to that way of life,or had found ways to creatively express the intense energies of that age bracket in positive ways, and i Do believe that more young people Today are finding healthy and creative outlets than in past...this movie though was a reminder that it still exists

Caught this on Netflix, I thought it started well and drew you into a story about teens, using and buying and selling drugs. Pablo Schreiber jumps off the screen, he does an excellent job and was perfectly cast, showing the corrupted raw instincts of a military veteran gone bad. The story is ultimately one that has been told many times but is a good tense gritty crime drama. Without giving away spoilers I can't go into the plot but think of a combination of 8 Mile and Breaking Bad. Every character was desperate in their own way in a tightly woven story.

I hate to say it but I think the weak spot was Eliza Taylor who is not up to the challenge of carrying the film and was a bit too soft for the part. I was surprised to see Lena Headey and it took me a minute to recognize her, she did a wonderful job as Eliza's boss. The best part of the film was the middle and the end did not live up to the tension, but overall worth watching.

I have to agree with the other reviews that noted the main character didn't quite produce the depth needed for this film. The writing was strong. Most of the characters' pulled their part. But the lead was a bit of a miss.

I kept thinking I knew Meredith (Kat) from somewhere. Seeing her name in the credits didn't help until I looked her up. I knew her from when she was the strong but flawed leader of the last people left on Earth after nuclear war. Now that's quite a resume! To be clear, she might have done this movie first.

Here, she has a lot of confidence and yet half the time she is supposed to not know what she is doing. As an actor Meredith is quite good but as a cop she may have been in over her head. Plus she has to cope with being without her son., and not being able to do what she needs to for him. It's quite a range but Eliza Taylor has the ability to do it all. If it's so overwhelming she has to cry, she can do that too.

Pablo Schreiber also stands out. The opening scenes suggest a comedy where he is a Vin Diesel type who cares about his kids but is tough when he has to be. Actually, he is more tough than caring, and occasionally funny. And he is scary when he has to be.

Ben Feldman doesn't do a lot. I liked him a lot in "Superstore" but he looks so different here. He is a loving father with a positive attitude. Maybe too positive. He doesn't really fit in with the rest of the cast, but that's fine because he doesn't share scenes with the others and we need as much positivity as possible.

Jazzy de Lisser is one of the troubled teens. Just tough enough and somewhat vulnerable.

Daniel Webber is a teen in over his head, and he is likable enough, and not that tough considering what he must deal with. But he is caring and even strong when he has to be, as we get to see in at least a couple of scenes.

Jeremy Fraser is either developmentally disabled or really good at pretending. He doesn't do much, but as those who share a scene with him say, he does enough to be "cool".

Lena Headey is one of the cops in charge of taking down the dealers and the "cook" but she doesn't seem all that enthusiastic. But she's having trouble getting solid evidence so maybe it's not that she doesn't care.

This is a movie about drug dealers and users so despite the young kids shown briefly, don't expect kids to be able to watch. There is one scene with a birthday party. In the version I saw so many words were missing and the censors blurred a lot of objects shaped like cigarettes. Meredith/Kat smokes, but apparently if the audience can see what she is smoking, it is tobacco. And there is one particularly bloody scene where the audience is protected from the worst of it.

I don't remember much about music except there was a lot that I don't care for, which is to be expected with the characters here.

It's not what I would choose, but I think it's worth seeing for those who like this sort of thing.

There were some aspects of this film that I thought were really interesting and showed glimpses of brilliance but in the end they were often unexplored. The character development itself was my biggest complaint. The main character's family struggle really just doesn't feel invested enough. The thin line between law and criminality, again, glimpses are shown but don't really emphasize but more lightly tread. The law enforcement pressure on their own, and later the circumstances surrounding the characters who are involved in crime was almost frustrating to watch because you are given a tease of how that could have been a major breakthrough, but to no avail.

I will say that the setting, characters, and a few individual performances really kept me interested. The guy who played Wyatt ("pornstache") was sort of another level, and he really sold the performance. The main character seemed awkward in the beginning but that (to my surprise) is resolved later on.

Overall I'd put this at around 6.5, nothing groundbreaking but some people with a niche for this subject will enjoy it.