Deidra & Laney Rob a Train

"Deidra and Laney Rob a Train" is set in a non-descript town where almost no one goes to college, the local rail yard doesn't pay a sustainable wage, and signs of the town's glory days have littered the town's visual landscape. There's a lot of talk lately about showing more people of minority races on TV but this is a film that shows a landscape of economic depression that doesn't discriminate against people of either color. The two protagonists are bi-racial and neither their African-American mother nor their white father can make enough to provide them a brighter future (though points go to mom for trying quite a bit harder).

When the titular characters' mother gets incarcerated, they decide to rob the insides of slow-moving freight trains to raise money for their bail. The film gets interesting when exploring the dangers and logistics of such an act. Like a lot of the film, the appeal is in exploring a corner of Americana that has been right under your eyes most of your life.

Deidra and Laney are astereotpical with the elder sister being an overachiever in school and Laney being angst-filled and Laney filled with a mixture of angst and a desire to fit in. She's bullied quite a bit and these scenes are perhaps the cruelest in the film to stomach if you haven't seen much of this genre. The film is filled with a few familiar faces (Sasheer Zamata of "Saturday Night Live", Missi Pyle, and Tim Blake Nelson) but mostly thrives on new talent and these actresses have a lot of room to surprise us.

It's a worthwhile watch.

It's good to show films of struggles, and situations people face. But it's also a fun comedy, with really great young actors, and charming characters. I enjoyed this film a lot.

Deidra is the oldest sibling, her Mum has just been thrown in jail, bills are mounting up, and she wants to take care of her siblings, and not have them taken into foster care. She's a bright young girl, who has the potential to go to college, but what does she have to do to keep her family together.

I think it manages to raise issues well, but still keep things fun. It was a great watch.

When mom makes a scene and gets carted off to jail, her daughters need money to pay the bills. Including mom's bail money. So they hatch a plan to rob a train... which happens to run through their yard. They go through with it, and if we buy into some pretty unlikely events, and...they pull it off! While discussing self esteem issues. It's mostly silly, but there are some funny bits. The guidance counselor who just wants to escape this town. The high school students will do just anything to get into a college. The beauty contestants who trip each other to win. Life in a small town. It's silly, but not bad. Directed by sidney freeland. Story by shelby farrell. Stick around for a fun scene about halfway through the closing credits.

This is a weak and uneven script. One sister has some background, yet the other does not have anything. Than you realize the scriptwriter wanted badly to make points with the losers in the audience that will empathize with the character because of bullying. And maybe trick some real reviewers into dropping a word about social issues. The pre production is awfully done. There is a family. But the individuals don't look anything like each other. Only in post production we get the nice parts like the way the title is made in the opening sequence.

And the awful moments of deus ex machina! The two women forget about the state employee visiting, but the apparently uninformed ex dad is there, for the first time in the whole script and he also had the time to clean up. His character might be a slob, but he surely knows how to clean a house with children home alone. And he is always very clean. Yet he is an underachiever.

Anyway, the over 30 characters are clownish.

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I love my RACHEL in this movie , ever since I saw her singing debut on whatever singing show I saw her on as a child! She is the best ...but other than that... this is a take it or leave it type of flick. The "felon father" was probably the best acting role in the movie imo.

...And I don't care to hear kids cussing...and cussing... and cussing...