Review by hm-4

The first 10-12 minutes seemed unnecessary to the plot. But, once the movie got into the story and into the characters, it was a powerful drama of confusion, abuse, power, and control filmed in an intimate style placing the movie viewer in the scenes. Some may think of this film as a sort of Animal Farm except with humans. The story is about a homeless band of young people whom we find are homeless by choice. They think they are held together by each other's friendship, but at the hub of their strength is "Johnny," the title character, that controls them all. As his needs are fulfilled, the others are torn apart and taken right to the edge. The audience is taken right along for the ride to a seemingly inevitable but unexpected conclusion. Strong performances by a talented group of young Canadian performers whom I hope we see a lot more of.