Bondage

I really liked this movie; it excels in telling the story of one young man's humanity, contrasted with the inhumanity of the correctional system. You become immersed in the life of Charlie, and you start to make the voyage through the film with him. As you begin trying to understand everything going on in his life, you contrast it to a system that does not see people as individuals. A system the judges people's character based upon flawed and superficial measurements.

Superb acting was essential to telling the story, and the cast did a fantastic job. There are many shots in the film that rely heavily on the facial expression of Charlie, and Michael Angarano delivered.

I think the cinematography really fit the film as well. The use of lighting, colors and shots always seemed appropriate, and really was consistent with the overall vision.

In short, storytelling is often times a lost art, but Bondage did a great job at telling us a story. It gives the audience the chance to walk in someone else's shoes for a few hours, and learn from their experience. I really enjoyed that experience.

-E

I was lucky enough to see the world premiere of this film at SXSW just the other day. I knew little about the movie but wanted at least one screening under my belt at an actual film festival. The screening was in the morning, so I ended up talking about it to everyone around me the rest of the day. It's been the highlight of the trip, other than meeting the cast and director.

In the opening moments of Bondage, a first time feature for directer Eric Allen Bell, young Charlie Edwards is arrested for vandalism and arson. The corrections industry in California is uninterested in addressing his emotional trauma; they just want to store his body for the course of his four year sentence. To escape the harassment of the gangs and the corrections officers, Charlie feigns insanity and moves to a psychiatric hospital. The doctors push drugs on top of drugs to nullify everything in Charlie's world. And all Charlie wants for himself is to live his own life without the oppressive rules made up by other people.

The narrative flexes the sequence of events, seamlessly incorporating past, present and future moments into a coherent storyline. There are moments when the film explores the tactics Charlie's parents would use to enforce their standards of control, including a particularly harrowing sequence where they drag him into the bathroom and force his hands to scrub out the tub as he pleads for mercy. A character late in the film makes this observation: parents who box their teen into a corner with rules and emotional manipulation are so shocked when he comes out fighting, it's no wonder they call him crazy.

Michael Angarano in the role of Charlie had a formidable task carrying the film, and he excels at giving the character a sense of tragedy. By mere body posture and softly spoken lines, we see Charlie as a damaged and frightened person, who understands little about why he's so deeply interred in a system that cares little for his well being. Illeana Douglas and Eric Lange as Charlie's parents are haunting with the complexity they bring to what is essentially the forces of old and evil. The film does not forgive them, but it creates in them real people, who do both wonderful and terrible things. Just like Charlie. It would be an oversight not to mention the adorable Mae Whitman as another product of an abusive home. Her character may have the least amount of screen time, but her impact on the film's final thirty minutes could be felt for hours after the credits rolled.

There's a famous poem by Phil Larkin called "This Be The Verse." It ran through my head the entire time I sat in the theater. IMDb won't allow me to post it here due to the expletives it contains, but it's not hard to find after a quick search on Google.

Go see this movie.

• Jon

"The Bondage" by Eric Allen Bell has one of the best endings to a movie I think I have ever seen. If you have not seen this movie, see it. This is incredible. It's available for download on a bunch of sites. The storyline is amazing. I could not stop myself watching the movie until the very ending. Every single scene of this movie was amazing to watch, and the best part was the ending. I think it really exposes the horrific juvenile justice system. And the industry built up around medicating kids instead of looking at other factors, like their horrible parents. Every parent of a teenager needs to see this film. It is from first time film director Eric Allen Bell.

Totally not what you expect it to be. Lot's of cool music and cool scenes. Michael Angarano might be the next Sean Penn. This guy Jose Pablo Cantillo is probably going to become a big star also off of this. The ending seems like it would be a great beginning for like an HBO series or something. How come so many movies these days totally suck? This is more like "Napoleon Dynamite" or "Garden State" but more serious. However, totally different from anything I've ever seen - and I haven't seen the whole film. I have a feeling it will probably get picked up by Lions Gate or Fox Searchlight. Seems like their kind of picture. The soundtrack is going to be awesome. I don't know why Mae Whitman isn't in more movies because she is really, really good. So is Micheal K. Williams from "The Wire". He plays a totally badass Juvy security guard.

Bondage is not about the strange sex acts that happen in New York City's underground brothels; it is a light, indie study of being held down by those around you which prevent you from developing your own sense of character and humanity. As interesting as that could've been, Bondage is an absolute disappointment.

Read: will be picked up by a small distribution company and make a killing in hip indie markets.

The film is about young Charlie who lives in a dysfunctional household with terrible parents and a 15 year old kid brother who loves to push him into doing things he doesn't want to. In order to get out of the house, the two lie to their parents about going to church and end up at a park smoking pot and drinking beer. After sneaking out one night with his brother to vandalize the school, Charlie is caught by the police and sent to Juvenile hall. His brother manages to get off, and Charlie doesn't rat him out. The rest of the film focuses on Charlie's "horrific" experiences in prison and his eventual coming of age.

In retrospect, Bondage has a lot of great things going for it. Director Eric Allen Bell somehow picked the perfect cast of no-name actors to comprise his film, and they are all excellent. Particularly fantastic is young Michael Angarano as Charlie, I'm sure if this gets ample distribution that we'll be seeing a lot more from young Michael. But Bell's poor script chokes the potential out of the film's throat. All of the actors and themes are downright wasted here, as Bell would love for us to take his themes more seriously, but can't seem to shake the silly adolescent humor. Bondage is another modern American independent film that has no idea what subtlety means. I don't need a two minute monologue by the protagonist's love interest telling us that he is a good person who just hasn't been given a chance. Stop beating the audience over the head already; we aren't stupid.

Bell's film is the most recent case of the indie film cliché. The most recent serving of Garden State/Thumbsucker etc. wave of films, Bondage features everything from poorly placed flashbacks to flashy split screen editing and a terribly obvious soundtrack. One scene which made me and the woman to my right crack up, finds Charlie placed in solitary confinement with a Death Cab song playing over it. If the film isn't screaming, "COME ON, PLEASE LIKE ME!" it's crying, "COME ON, FEEL SORRY FOR MY CHARACTERS!" Bell's film is at times very funny and can be surprisingly entertaining. But for what director Eric Allen Bell was hoping to achieve in his conveyance of themes, he fails miserably. The tonally inconsistent first feature effort from the director should be a stepping stone on which to learn by, and improve next time. This film is noticeably better than other first timer's films, it's just so scattershot and obvious that I can't recommend it.