The Dead Kid

Filmmaker Gergory Goyins reminds us what it's like to be at the difficult and transitional age of late childhood in his film The Dead Kid. Annie Baxter lives a normal life. She plays with her friends, camps outside at night, explores her hometown, and she starts noticing boys, hoping they notice her too. Her innocent desire for one boy's attention allows her to look the other away as her crush bullies another child. After the bullied child goes missing, Annie is burdened by her lack of action to defend the boy. Goyins wonderfully illustrates the fear and guilt weighing us down from little mistakes we make for the sake of acceptance by our peers. Most importantly though, the film reminds us to forgive ourselves for these little mistakes. In only 27 minutes, Goyins tells a small story with a big and long lasting emotional impact. This film deserves to be seen and heard.

I was very much moved by this short story from Gillian King and the way it was brought to life by its director Gregory Goyins.

The Dead Kid is the memory of a childhood time when Frankie, a neighborhood kid who was frequently the target of bullies disappears and the community is shaken up. Frankie's parents are grief stricken while other parents keep a closer eye on their own. As told by Annie, who lived on the same street as Frankie, the other kids run wild with speculation as to what happened to him.

A favorite place for kids to go to was the town dump, which was tended to by the town's dump keeper, Mr. Dunbar. Everything the town no longer wanted or needed would end up there and what is one person's trash is another person's treasure. Mr. Dunbar understood kids, both the good and the bad parts of them.

I think the way Greg Goyins brought out the realness of the kids was excellent, but to me the most important character was Mr. Dunbar. What is beautiful about this film is we can all take from it so many different emotions. I loved it.

"The Dead Kid" finds a nice balance between tones of humor and sadness. It is an easy film to surrender yourself to because you can feel the filmmaker conveying that which many films lack: honesty.

The ability to find subject material that an audience can truly relate to can be a difficult task. Creating the experience to move an audience in line with that message, however, takes serious skill.

Though the director is only in the early stages of his career, he shows he can create a film that pulls the audience into a complete world. He allows you to travel alongside the protagonist with complete security knowing that your time -- and the experience -- are well worth it.

THE DEAD KID deals with the conflicts of childhood's mistakes. The protagonist knows she is complicit to wrongdoing even though she didn't do wrong, and she confesses her feelings of guilt in this touching, smart and wise little film. Deftly written with a realistic yet poetic tone, THE DEAD KID is directed with dark and vital imagery,illuminating a story that could have happened to anybody. The story deals with bullying--the kid who is innocent, bullied, yet takes it and perhaps expects it. Two girls observe the acts but do nothing to stop them, and one of them suffers for realizing that.

Watching THE DEAD KID reminds the viewer of those many omissions and slight transgressions of childhood and youth we were never punished for, except in our own hearts. Very touching, very well done. It is a remembrance and an apology for all of us.

Director Gregory Goyins latest masterpiece, The Dead Kid is a thoughtful meditation on the thin veneer that separates life and death, and upon which life, in all of it's fragile interconnectedness rests.Children become the perfect vehicle to explore the theme, not only because we've finally become witness to the danger and the harm of bullying, but because they are often the silent victims of the failures of the adults around them.

Seamlessly binding the terror of the Atlanta child murders into the story, a steady feeling of uneasiness parallels the disturbing events that surround the disappearance of Frankie Thomas, and the disarray and confusion that this creates in a small community. A sort of psychic trauma begins to envelope those involved, tilting reality askew and hinting that the sextant is not merely misaligned, but that the stars themselves have come disjointed. There are no isolated events in this universe as tragedy begins to self perpetuate. Artfully blurring the boundary between life and death, sanity and madness, The Dead Kid resonates powerfully as it hints at the fragility of a life and the web that binds us all.

It would be easy to see this film as a reflection on bullying, and it is that, most assuredly, but in this masterfully sensitive adaptation of Gillian King's short story, Director Greg Goyins again demonstrates a level of insight and command of the medium which is rare among young directors .