American Gun

From the first time I heard about the movie, I've been waiting to see it. I finally saw it earlier tonight after begging my mother to order the movie on DEMAND. Like my title implies, the film ended too soon. I knew beforehand that it was only 95 minutes, but that's way different than actually watching it.

The characters - no matter how awful or sweet - somehow makes you love them in one way or another. You can't help but me sympathetic to each situation, because every character has something to offer. You will walk away learning something, no doubt.

To the ones who say they're tired of intertwining stories or whatever, this is one of the best films you could ever hope to witness with your own two eyes.

This movie is a true tale. I live like these characters almost everyday and I know people like that. So please give it a chance before you rag. I promise you won't regret it.

In AMERICAN GUN guns are examined from the perspective of four different stories after one tragic accident similar to the Florida one in 2018.

Janet (Marcia Gay Harden) is the mother of the teenager who shot in his Oregon school and is scorned by her neighbours while also being worried about her brother son that has the same age of the kid when he committed that terrible act. Carter (Forest Whitaker) is the high school principal that struggles everyday for keeping the school safe from guns until he discovers that his son has bought a gun. Mary Ann Wilk (Linda Cardellini) is a West Coast girl that is displaced to a Virginia college and in her free time works in her grandfather (Donald Sutherland)'s gun shop. Frank (Tony Goldwyn) is a cop who is constantly criticized for having arrived late at the shooting and has some sort of burden in his conscience for this.

While watching I found AMERICAN GUN very interesting despite at times the loud music was annoying and the stories looked a bit disjointed. Maybe because it features many great actors and they all give good performances. I loved it? Not exactly, but I admire it for being different and kinda actual despite it was released in 2005. And I think this movie is better than most of the reviews I read... are we always watching the same movie??

I watched Crash. I thought it was decent. Oscar worthy? Absolutely not. I watched Babel. I thought it was absolutely terrible. If you go to the comments on that movie, you will find what I wrote about it. I watched Magnolia. Another decent type of these, but nothing I would watch over again. All of these movies got quite a bit of notice. Whether they deserved it or not, I don't really know.

But what I do know is that American Gun deserved some serious attention. This movie, which clearly had a lower budget than all of those other movies, was the greatest film of the multiple stories genre.

Maybe it's just because I don't consider "racism bad" a good enough message in a movie for the past two decades (except American History X); I think gun violence, especially in high schools, is one of the most important issues in our country. This movie just managed to get under my skin and rip out emotion from me a lot better than most movies I have seen. This movie should have received the Oscar that Crash won. It was completed before Crash. Forrest Whitaker alone is better than every actor and actress in Crash combined.

Few films pull off the loosely connected people style very well. It annoys me when a movie filled with A-list celebrities gets noticed because of it. American Gun is one of the few that didn't get that notice and deserved it.

"American Gun" is an amazing, quiet movie that packs so much into an hour and 37 minutes. It's about the lives, ones of desperation and defeat, that different people around the nation live with every day, ones affected by guns.

Marcia Gay Harden plays a single mother whose son participated in a shooting at his high school and was killed. Even though that was years ago, she lives trapped in that time, that single moment that shaped her life and her younger son's life forever. For anyone who heard about the tragedy at Columbine, saw the footage and were outraged, for anyone who thought, "What were the parents doing? Why didn't they stop those children from taking guns into that school?" this movie shows the other side. And will make you think.

Linda Cardellini is a college student who works in her grandfather's (played by Donald Sutherland) gun shop. She's uncomfortable around him, around the shop, but family obligation keep there day after day.

Arlen Escarpeta plays Jay, an African-American high school student who carries a gun to school. But he's also a straight A student and takes care of his mother and younger siblings.

At the heart of this movie is Carter (Forest Whitaker), a principal at Jay's high school, a man who is there to make a difference. He talks to those kids, he tries to make them understand there's more to life than guns and gangs. He's so dedicated that sometimes he neglects his own family to help others.

There are no easy stereotypes in this movie, no pat answers. No one is simply one thing. The main characters are real, sometimes unrelentingly horrible, sometimes kind to each other. Whether you are pro or anti-gun, this movie will make you question what you believe and give you something to think about.

It is no "bullet-shit" that the enthralling independent film "American Gun" does fire major points on the American gun control issue within its intertwining plot. However, it is also no "bullet-shit" that "American Gun" did misfire with one of its story lines. A la "Crash", "American Gun" includes various characters within several story lines that focus on a controversial social issue. What struck me about "Crash" was its creative precision to detail on how the social issue (in 'Crash"- racism) all interconnected. In "American Gun" there are separate situations that are "bullet-proof", but hold no fundamental connective qualities on the gun control issue.

Here are my on-target shots of "American Gun": 1) On target: Marcia Gay Harden was mesmerizing as a mother of a fallen youth assailant who murdered several students and teachers in school grounds three years ago. Her story focuses on how she combatively tries to overcome the tragedy , and her challenge to supersede the pain by avidly trying to support her other son. 2) On target: Forest Whitaker's captivating performance as a high school principal who is dealt with the challenge of a youth gun control problem at the school he pilots. In other words, "Run, Forest, Run" before your students run the asylum well-armed. 3) On target: Tony Goldwyn's golden acting duty portraying a police officer who is guilt-ridden that he could not be more proactive in preventing the aforementioned school violence tragedy. 4) On target: Novice Writer-Director Aric Avelino's film-making & screen writing machinery efforts in the School Gun Control and the Grieving Mother/Remorseful Officer story lines.

Here are the misfires of "American Gun": 1) Misfire: Donald Sutherland's phlegmatic performance as a gun owner who tries to connect with his alienated granddaughter. 2) Misfire: The aforementioned storyline which had no relevance or impact to the American gun control issue. In other words, it had me gunning for more.

OK, that's it! I am a gunner , I mean "goner" with this one! *** Average