White Rabbit

I thought we were going to have a rip off of Donnie Darko when I saw the title of the movie but apart of the main character having visions and hallucinations it's not comparable. In White Rabbit the main character Harlon Mackey played by Nick Krause is getting bullied at school, has not a lot of friends, and even at home things are not particularly good. After a day hunting with his father he is traumatized when he had to shoot a defenseless white rabbit. From that point he's starting hallucinating, hearing voices speaking to him from his favorite comic book. I thought Nick Krause did a good job with his character. And the other actors were all good as well. The story is entertaining and is an example of a lot of things that go wrong in the education of kids in the United States. Teaching your kids to shoot guns at their young age, buying them guns as a present, prayer groups before going to school etc, all things that will mess up a kid if he's borderline disturbed. Kids that are getting bullied, that are outcasts in their school, it's not a good idea to give them guns as a present. And that's why in America you get shootings at schools etc... Things that you almost never see in Europe. I did enjoy the movie, especially the acting of Nick Krause.

This film emulates so many films that involve a similar subject matter, and yet somehow fails to capture the same wonderful elements of it's predecessors.

Perhaps one of the biggest flaws right off the bat is the quality of acting, particularly with the younger actors. One thing struck me during my viewing of this film, and that was how the leads looked more like Hollywood teens, and less like something you'd find in the backwoods where this is all taking place. I think it's very likely that the casting for this film revolved more around aesthetics than it did acting ability, which is a shame because much of this movie relies on the lead being able to convey his gradual build-up of rage and anxiety, and unfortunately falls quite flat in this regard.

So with the lead and the love interest just not up to par, this instantly undercuts a lot of the film outright. On top of that the build-up itself, which is just a few instances of your various 'High school sure if ruff' vignettes also leaves something to be desired. The pacing feels off with it. As in the intensity of each little scene does not constantly build, but rather wavers, ebbs and flows between mundane and tragic.

Though really the tragic thing is how much visible potential this film had. A lot could have been done with it, but what was done was not done well. When there're so many great films out there that tackle such difficult subject matter, it becomes really difficult to recommend this one.

Growing up can be tough. It is even more tough as men when we are sensitive, and things can just get to us so much. Bullying tactics might be enough to have us cry and just have different meltdowns of sorts. I believe this is the core theme of this movie.

In life we have challenges and we can rise above them and be better then them or we can let them crush our soul.

Watching bullying movies can be hard for me and yet so relatable although the movie is only about bullying in part I believe it to be one of the central themes. It makes me angry inside seeing bullying but for me I just sympathize with it so much due to my own experiences.

In life we have to be tough but kids do not always know how. In small town living there is not much to do but people have fun doing what people have always been known to do.

Very interesting directing, use of filter, acting, writing, the story flows in an interesting way, and the topics throughout the film are extremely relevant.

There are things with the film I will not talk about, as the story changes in interesting ways throughout the film.

I bumped into this on the "trending now" section on Netflix streaming and I was glad I did. It also has Sam from True Blood in it who I always liked. He plays a real masculine no nonsense type dad.

A teenager in Louisiana (Nick Krause) faces the challenges of the working class, a troubled father (Sam Trammell), bullies at school and first love (Britt Robertson). Will it push him over the edge?

"White Rabbit" (2013) is a dark coming-of-age drama with gritty realism and an artsy flair. It has been compared to "Donnie Darko," but that one was sci-fi with a high school milieu whereas "White Rabbit" keeps things mundane and relatable, not to mention brooding and edgy. Besides, "Donnie" was essentially a blockbuster while this one cost $2 million.

If you like Indies like "Cutback" (2010) and "Love Everlasting" (2016) or mainline flicks like "The Rage: Carrie 2," you'll appreciate this. The ending doesn't wuss out and is reminiscent of the underrated "Speck" (2002). Thankfully, as dark as it is, it wisely provides a ray of light.

The film runs just over 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in outer New Orleans.

GRADE: B+/A-

Which passes off like a movie lionising Jeffrey Dahmer, really, and much more so than the recent TV series.

Poor casting of what looks like 30- and 40-something pretending at playing teens does the movie a disservice completely taking the viewer out of the movie. A lot of the scenes are laughable and not in a good way, because of that, some scenes are completely beyond belief, because of the differences of how people think and act in their teen age, here the producers didn't make an effort to actually research the pedestrian subject of life of high school teens and seemingly didn't even want to.

A cringy imitation of the "deep" and "psychological" movies of the 90ies, without substance, with the (still very minimal) gore and stylized violence of the 2010s searching for a meaning, which won't come until the 2020ies , a transitional period, for movies, and for society too. 4/10.