A distanza ravvicinata

AT CLOSE RANGE is one of the bleakest, coldest, scariest, and most depressing films I have ever seen...it was made even more depressing when I learned at the end that it was based on a true story. A very young but already magnetic Sean Penn is heartbreakingly convincing and predictably terrific in the lead role of a tough but generally good kid with family problems that range from a poor home with his mother and grandmother to having a lowlife, evil-to- the-asshole scumbag for a father. As the father, Christopher Walken, in what may be the greatest performance of his career, gives one of the most despicable, hateful, and frightening in it's believability performances in the history of film. He is the epitome of an evil person who has turned amoral with a lot of practice. I can't remember the last time I hated a character in a film as much as I despised Walken. The remarkable final confrontation scene between him and Penn, after a tragedy has happened, is an example of how limitless the raw power that film can evoke truly is when it is in the hands of amazing character actors who get inside their characters in such an awe-inspiring way that they make you feel like you are watching a documentary. The scene makes you so sad and angry at the same time that it just breaks your f**king heart! It is one of the very best scenes of both actors' stellar careers, and it is a scene that I'm sure will be shown every time either actor receives a Career Achievement Award in their future. Mary-Stuart Masterson, a talented actress who unfortunately seems to have gotten lost in the Bermuda Triangle after FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, is also touching and convincing as Penn's underage girlfriend. After watching GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS and now this, I think James Foley is clearly one of the modern masters when it comes to directing and setting the stage for great acting. It's not an entertaining movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a powerful, honest, unmercifully human one that will be hard to forget. B+

This raw look at small town hoods brutally exposes us to a portion of society rarely depicted in movies. Souped-up cars and small time heists are nothing new, but `At Close Range' is really more ‘The Godfather' than `Bonnie and Clyde'.

Disobedient kids, worthless mom, ineffective stepfather. Every day we hear tell of it on Montel, Jerry Springer, and Sally. Here, we see it, here we live it.

James Foley does his best work here, you might think it funny to call a film with a lot of 4x8 paneling and muscle shirts ‘stylish' but this film has its own distinctive style, in many ways reminding me of Michael Mann's very stylish `Thief'

Christopher Walken is nothing short of spectacular. Both the Penn brothers (Sean and Chris) do very strong turns as sons of this verrry badddd man.

Great story, powerful performances. All too real. Even a bit of a storybook ending doesn't tarnish this one.

This is such a well crafted film in so many ways, I urge you not to watch it alone. The writer has dipped into Greek mythology as well as modern newspaper tabloids, and come up with a frightening collection of kids and adults that you absolutely believe could exist down the street in a 'lesser' part of town.

I won't go into the plot, except to say that it's centered around kids need for love from their parents- and what they'll do to get it.

Chris Walken walks away with the film- every time he's on screen, it lights up and all sense of time stops. I'm not exaggerating! He's stunning.

The Penn brothers, Sean and Chris, do fine work as well. But I was most surprised by Chris Penn, he's open and sad and really quite a terrific actor.

I think this is James Foleys best film, and worth a rent.

This movie is about criminals, but it is a more realistic portrayal than many of the more famous movies in which the action and characters are comically drawn (such as spaghetti crime movies), and the events, although never fully explained, have a ring of logic about them, and don't lose the viewer (such as the Godfather movies do). Walken portrays a very vicious criminal with a true criminal mind. Penn plays his son, who tries crime out for a living, and brings some of his friends into the business with him. Like all modern gangster movies, what they actually do is never explained, but the explanation of each person's part is better understood by the viewer than most movies of this genre. Walken is much like the criminal who really exists in our country. He can come across as fairly glib, but never hesitates to commit senseless acts of horror. He gives the excuse early on that he has some reason. The first real horrible act is murdering a man he claims is a snitch. But after a while, it is evident he just concocts these reasons to perform murders. As in real life, the criminals always find easy prey and then call such prey "snitches", in order to rationalize their actions. In real life, the real snitches are left alone and are feared by criminals, because a snitch is just someone who refuses to knuckle under. Meanwhile, the Walken character wipes out those most faithful to him. The most realistic movie of this genre in the last thirty years.

Sean Penn plays Brad Jr., an aimless young man in late-1970s rural Pennsylvania who gets into it with his mom's latest boyfriend, so he decides to move in with Dad (Christopher Walken) for awhile. Dad turns out to be the head of a gang of thieves, and will stop at nothing to keep from winding up back in jail, including having potential witnesses murdered.

Brad Jr. Doesn't like seeing people murdered, but doesn't figure out that not engaging in crime might be the solution, so when he and his friends try to carry off a heist and get caught, the prosecutor puts the pressure on him and his friends.

Based on a true story, this one is incredibly brutal, reminding me at times of Animal Kingdom (2010) and Badlands, the latter because Brad Jr. Falls in love with a 16-year-old girl (a young Mary Stuart Masterson) and tries to run away with her at one point. The movie also has small roles from a young Crispin Glover and Kiefer Sutherland among others, and introduced the Madonna (remember, Sean Penn was married to Madonna at the time) song "Live to Tell".