Twelve

I hesitated a couple times before I finally decided to rent this film out. Basically the film revolves around teenage individuals who live in the city of New York, and have a position in the social scale of partying. The film is lead by Chase Crawford from "Gossip Girl." In this he stars as "White Mike," a sober drug dealer who has never taken a drug or sip of alcohol. The section of his life of which the film chooses to observe takes place after the death of his Mother of him he had lost to cancer. This leaves him drifting throughout the dullness of New York dealing drugs to his ex-classmates and a particular girl named Jessica, who is hung over from a new drug called "Twelve" and wants more. As she finds herself played by this drug the events in the film escalates into plots of murder, sex and drama leading to the sleek finale of where the mess that explodes at an 18th birthday.

I have to say the best thing about this film is the way the characters interact with each other. Although I am not a fan of Chase Crawford, his performance towards the end of a lost soul left numb by the death of his Mother caused me to feel sympathetic for the guy. Crawford's performance is unlikeable and blank at times but it stands almost unnoticeable by the witty performances of the ensemble.

The film leaves us to deal with a range of characters at different levels. Emily Meade, Jeremy Allen White, Rory Culkin, 50 Cent and Esti Ginzburg all give the film a variety of drama's in different tones. Emily Meade plays Jessica, she is my favorite character with her strong individuality of a girl who knows what she wants yet has a weakness to the drug Twelve, progressing to methods of desperation when she discovers she has no money for one last fix. Rory Culkin delivers another likable performance as Chris, a guy who lives alone in his parents townhouse, throwing parties for the sake of if it, while giving into his weakness of women as he finds himself manipulated by a blonde social princess, Sara Ludlow. He deals calmly and accustomed to his Brothers large explosive egotistical personality. Emma Roberts who stars as Chase Crawford's love interest, tries hard yet innocently to spend time with him. His reaction of always wanting to leave her causes frustration and desire of him healing from grief and committing love to her.

These characters are pleasing to me as I am interested in stories about rich kids of take advantage of their wealth, money and power. These stories fascinate me ever since I read the novel, Less than Zero.

Keifer Sutherland's deep Sin-City-meet's-Ghostface tone of narrating gives the film a dark downbeat pace. His smooth voice embodying the senses of sadness, corruption and pleasure.

The only problem I had with this movie was Rory Culkin's brother Billy Magnussen who performed annoyingly and just plain lame at times. The character Magnussen portrays has just escaped from rehab after assaulting a officer there. His douchebag outbursts, crude comments, and self centered cockiness could have been portrayed with a better actor like Ryan Phillippe or Channing Tatum or just someone better. This stupid brainf****d character however gives a chilling intimidating ending tying the ribbon to this dark interesting film.

The film is not perfect, but for a straight to DVD feature I am pleased with the character driven plots. It doesn't waste time or dwell on certain topics like most underrated films, it's not stereotypical ignoring the use of character's we've seen before. It's cinematography and tone is similar to Daydream Nation starring Kat Dennings as the lead.

I like this film. Check it out.

I finally got to see this movie and I have to say, I really did like it. I know that this movie has been getting terrible reviews and slammed by just about everybody, but I would like to back this movie up a bit.

1 - When I first heard about this movie and saw the trailer, my first thought was this reminds me of "The Rules of Attraction" and "Less Than Zero," two of my favorite books and movies. So I immediately went searching for the book "Twelve." Found it, read it, and LOVED it. I guess you sort of have to be into these types of stories to enjoy them. But needless to say, the book reminded of "Rules" and "Less Than Zero," which is why I liked it so much, except "Twelve" takes place in the present, which I can relate to, and not the 80's, even though I still love them.

Realizing this right now as I type this, don't watch this movie or read the book if you are not into these types of movies/books. If you are, then I highly recommend it.

2 - After having been a fan of the book, I was very anxious to see the movie. I finally saw it, bought it without seeing and wasn't sure what to expect, and I can say it was better than I expected. I was beginning to let the negative reviews suck me in, but I was pretty pleased with it. I think the main reason why I liked it is because it stayed very true to the book. Obviously the book is better, but the movie was pleasing for me.

3 - I was very happy with the casting in this movie. I think Chase Crawford did a great job. Very believable as White Mike. I hadn't really seen him do anything because I don't watch "Gossip Girl," so it was nice seeing what he can do. I really like Emma Roberts so I enjoyed her just as much as Molly as I always do in any role she portrays. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, small part, but very strong performance. I only knew him as a musician, never seen him act, and was impressed with him. He too, was very believable. Most of the actors in this movie were very believable. The two individuals who stood out most to me were Billy Magnussen and Emily Meade. I have never seen them in anything else before, and I thought they were absolutely great. I hope to see more of them. I also loved Ellen Barkin's appearance in this movie. She was great as always.

4 - A lot of other comments or reviews, slammed the narration of Kiefer Sutherland in this movie. I will admit in the beginning it seemed to be too much, or some parts didn't really need to be narrated, but the majority of the narration, I thought was needed. I did not think it was out of place. It reminded me of the book once again. The narration was informative, descriptive, and at sometimes comical, or comic relief in my opinion.

5 - I thought the style was done very well in this movie. The music, the party scenes, the atmosphere, the different groups and cliques, the suspense and fear, the sadness, the chemistry between the two leads, etc. This movie pulled it off. I was worried before I saw the movie and with all of the bad reviews that it would have been too much or not enough, but NO, I was pleased.

This is my overall opinion on the movie. The only thing I did not like about this movie, and I wont give any spoilers to anyone, I felt like the end was rushed. It seemed like the "Event" at the very end, came and went too fast. Still an impressive performance delivered by the actors, which helped the scene out for me, but I felt like not enough time was spent at the end. I guess to understand what I mean, you would have to read the book then see the movie. My recommendation.

But I will say that although the very end had a slight minor change, again no spoilers, I was happy with the ending. That was a major concern for me, but I thought the very end was simple and sweet. Which worked.

I honestly really hope this review helps people who are interested in this movie. I'm going recommend it to people who are into these types of stories/books/movies. I think what helped me the most was that I knew what was going on, which might be a spoiler for some people or people just might not like that, but just know that if you watch this movie, its a lot like the book. And don't let the negative reviews stop you from seeing it. Check it out and see for yourself.

I read the reviews on-site and many off-site before watching this and saw they were very polarized, so I even went through some European reviews, which treated it quite a bit nicer but which were also pretty polarized. I did notice that, as of this writing, 20% of the people voting here on IMDb gave it a 10, which is significantly higher than even George Clooney's latest film, "The American" received, although it has a somewhat higher overall score. The major complaint I read amongst all the reviews was about the ongoing narration but, I thought, it's only a dollar rental and if it's too intrusive I can always watch something else. So, I decided to give it a spin.

Imagine you are watching a young man in a room, alone with the open casket of his mother, who had just passed away from cancer. He's thinking that the wig the undertaker put on her, to hide her hair loss from the therapy, was unbecoming. He would rather see her for the last time as she really was at the end of her days, bald-headed. This is an important thought of his, which sets up a subsequent scene that would otherwise be totally inexplicable.

How can a film-maker express this thought? By introducing someone into the room with which the young man can have a conversation about this? No, that destroys the solitude of the moment. By having him speak this thought aloud to his mother's remains? Not very likely. By creating a completely new scene where someone is present and then create an artifice to have a conversation about it? No, that adds unnecessary complexity and bulk to wade through, confusing the storyline.

What Schumacher does is to use a narrator to give the viewer a short-cut directly into the minds of his characters at times - many times. This makes the film somewhat more like a visual book than a movie. It wouldn't do for most movies but it was effective here. (I got a good chuckle from the vapidity of the last thought of Sara's that we are exposed to.) It is a different approach but I, for one, enjoyed it. I most probably would not of enjoyed the book this film is based on, as I don't think there was enough plot substance here to make an enjoyable book for me but I do think there was sufficient substance for a film. 6.5 out of 10.

I've never seen anything that any of these actors have been in before, so I can't compare their work here. However, I really thought Billy Magnussen, Chase Crawford, and Emily Meade stood out in this film. I didn't expect their performances to be that believable, but I think they did a really wonderful job. Magnussen is a VERY convincing psycho-junkie, Crawford does a really great job with his character's inner good v evil, and Meade is really fantastic as a desperate clueless teenager with too much money. All other characters weren't worth remembering in my book.

I actually really liked the movie's narrative style and language. Kiefer Sutherland has a nice voice for the part, and it was timed really well. Makes me wanna read the book.

I for one thought that the narration by Kiefer Sutherland was one of the better things about this movie. The narration throughout the movie is what makes it different from other films. It also explains some of the characters because there isn't enough time to show everything on camera.

I liked this movie. It's about college drop out drug dealer, White Mike, whose mainly selling weed to his rich high school friends in New York City. His supplier, played by 50 cent, commits a couple of murders, that doesn't play a major role except that most of the movies' characters know one of the guys. The other major plot is this kid, Chris, likes to throw parties at his house. He throws a party for the hottest girl in school, and things end badly due to his crazy brother. I just thought the movie was interesting as it told the tale of how rich white kids waste their money and have parents whom are never around.

FINAL VERDICT: I liked the narration and how it shows all the characters without getting confusing. I recommend it.