The Dirties

After watching "The Dirties", I'm pretty impressed. You can tell that this is a pretty low budget film, and it proves that no matter what a film's budget it, it can still be very impactful.

The final moments of "The Dirties" are very disturbing. There's not as much gruesome violence as one might expect from a film that is essentially about a school shooting, but it is still terrifying, and works better without any blood and gore.

While the movie is very dark and disturbing, don't expect the film to be completely void of any entertainment value. It almost starts off like a dark comedy, with many amusing bits and characters. This IS a genuinely funny film...but it doesn't stay like that for long. The scenes towards the climax are very intense, and as the film progresses we realize more and more that the main character is a legitimate psychopath.

There's some flaws in the film, mainly having to due with technical issues that I had. For example, there's a lot of the cameraman zooming in and out to annoying effect. But, other than those little flaws, the movie is spectacular and highly recommended!

The Dirties follows these kids who are making a short film about two kids going into their school and shooting all of the bullies. That's as much as I can say without it flagging me for spoilers. I really love this story. It follows a topic that isn't discussed from this point of view. We always hear about bullying from a third person perspective, but The Dirties puts us right in the middle of it. Also to anyone who loves film and wants to get into the industry, you (including me) will find that these characters are extremely relatable which ends up being really scary and makes the movie memorable.

The acting is just as if the kids were going through everyday life. I wouldn't say it was amazing acting, but I definitely felt like the people were their characters. They were probably just playing themselves, so it was pretty interesting.

The camera work is in the found footage style, but not in the way that it's annoying, it just feels like you are the camera man documenting them making their short film.

The soundtrack has some good songs in it, mostly indie music.

The Dirties is an experience. It was fun, relatable, and memorable. The movie is chalk filled with movie references for cinephiles and comedy that makes you laugh. It is a must see just for the topic that it pertains and how it approaches it.

The Dirties is a film about two high school boys. They are given an assignment to make a movie and choose a plot that deals with taking down a gang of people called "The Dirties" who are bullies, troublemakers and like the title suggests, they are generally dirty folks. When they finish their film and present it, the boys, who are already victims of bullying, see an escalation of abuse. This triggers one of the boys, who loved filming their movie, starts taking the plot of the film and planning an attack on his real life bullies.

This film is simplistic but I really liked that. It brought a realism and showed the progressive mental decline through how these boys were being treated. It was intereting to see the relationship between the friends begin to change and even though there was concern, there was still a naive position that everything was going to be okay.

Bullying is a terrible thing and it is never really about the person that is being picked on. There is something going on within the bully that makes that person believe that by the mistreatment of others his or her own status is elevated. It is even more sad that people stand by quietly allowing the mistreatment of others to take place. Children/teens have not yet reached a point in their mental development to understand why someone would do these things to them and most of it is internalized and will eventually show itself in other ways. In this situation it was shown through seeking revenge.

I thought that this was an excellent film. It was simple and direct. We have to do a better job in making sure that we aren't just saving kids from bullying but also saving the bullies from whatever is making them feel the need to tear someone else down.

The Dirties has been garnering rave reviews and collecting awards at multiple film festivals and for good reason. It's a powerful, engaging and important film. Two high school best friends, Matt and Owen, decide to make a movie project for class where they pretend to murder the group of boys who routinely harass them. Matt is played by Matthew Johnson who also wrote and directed the film. It was filmed at a real high school with actual students so the line between reality and fiction is significantly blurred. Matt is an outsider but one that viewers can relate to, with his quips and love for movies. This makes it all the more disturbing when he begins to take the murder plot too seriously and takes action that will change his life, as well as the lives of all those around him, forever. This movie is not just about a school shooting. It's about consequences, it's about friendship, it's about loneliness. It's definitely a must see.

The Dirties premiered in Park City Utah this year, and it was clear from the beginning that it was one of the best films at either Sundance or Slamdance.

This film is quite possibly the most real and engaging exploration of what it means to be bullied and what it can drive people to. One of the most relevant films you'll see this year, if you can manage to see it.

I've rarely seen a movie that can take you to such a dark place, completely serious and genuine, but still make you smile during those bleak moments. And at the end of the day, it's that reaction of simultaneous investment and revulsion that makes the film worth watching.

It's both hilarious and horrible, thought-provoking and impossibly risky.

When this film gets distribution, see it.