State's Evidence

I love the internet as I come on here and cost film makers money if I don't like their films, not in a vindictive way (well maybe) but generally if I feel ripped off or taken for a fool as with States Evidence.

It is the worst sort of film, it's exploitation attempting and failing badly to be a meaningful examination of shootings in American schools. This is distasteful enough, but to do it in such a crass, arrogant, smug, naive way is unforgivable.

Four out of the five of the main actors are in their twenties and look it (Kris Lemche was 28 when this was made) which along with the badly realised device of actors filming themselves totally destroys any sense of believability.

Acting is self conscious and over the top and not helped by childish and pretentious dialogue. The deathless prose never ceases with a endless monologues of verbal diarrhea instead of structure and story.

This all makes up for a truly annoying and boring film with a mawkish, insincere climax so amateurish that it made me laugh instead of cry.

This movie had all the right ingredients for an amazing diamond in the rough. However, it falls short with it's endless lists of tired clichés that come off as another "adult's" perception of teenage-hood.

This movie isn't totally hopeless though. Douglass Smith and Kris Lemche steal the show with their opposing personalities: Cold, collected, reflective, intellectual philosopher(Smith) and rabid, hedonistic, irrational, desperate.(Lemche) Sadly, that's about where the shining ends.

The movie tries way too hard to pull off the 'The life of teenagers: XTREME, XTREME, XTREME' card. It's best moments lie in the most subtle scenes of self-contemplating, and views of the human psyche.

Long story short- could've been amazing. Didn't pull it off. A pure rent at best.

I work at Blockbuster, so naturally we get to see the movies before their official street date. I picked up "State's Evidence" because I saw that Alexa Vega was in it and the story just sort of grabbed me.

It was bold, but moving; the cast did a great job (Kris Lemche, in particular). The idea of a bunch of teenagers setting out to all commit suicide on camera is somewhat silly, but hearing their observations of the world today and seeing how everything spins out of control was just indescribable. This film was disturbing and surreal, but it was great. It literally made my heart ache.

If you're looking for some romantic comedy or cliché drama, then this is not the movie for you. However, if you're looking for a honest eye-opener, then I would definitely recommend this.

I use to be big into the independent scene, but recently it's been failing me. So, because I work at a major movie rental company, I've been forced to watch more mainstream movies or be bored out of my wits. However, State's Evidence kept me glued to my set, waiting for what was going to happen next. I think the casting was great, and not being to far gone from my teen years, I can look back and associate with most of the characters, but mainly Scott. So, I am going to be forcing my regulars to watch this movie...

BAD STUFF -Audio is a bit out of sync. -Not family friendly

GOOD STUFF -Made me think -Suspenseful

I honestly have to wonder if many of the other reviewers have seen the same film as I. Unfortunately, I went into this film with very high expectations, as the premise and the content warnings seemed very much like they would deliver something compelling and extreme. The main red flag however, is that this was a low budget movie from a director who made no further films. This can sometimes mean something brilliant, but in this case, the film just barely steps above the bar of "cheap amateurish independent straight to video film".

The Writing Style/Plot Development

One important thing to note is that this film is very dialogue driven, mainly with the monologues by the characters to the camera. I know well about the writing process, and as in plays, when your story is so heavily dialogue based, you're at a great risk of making your characters seem schizophrenic, because that dialogue is ultimately based on the episodic mood swings of the writer over a long period of time, crunched down into the short period of time within the material. The foremost problem with the material delivered by these young actors is that really, it sounds like dialogue written by a balding middle aged man who THINKS he knows how teenagers talk, feel, and rationalize, which is packed with tonnes of whiny pseudo intellectual nonsense, which because they're TEENAGERS, never goes full circle and often ends in vanity, triteness, or ambiguity, so in most cases a REAL concise reason for committing suicide is never established, and how each character's "inner thoughts" contradict from scene to scene shows that the writer himself did not BELIEVE the dialogue, and thus was unable to make it coherent and credible.

Actors/Characters

My first impression was that the directing was bad, but the story and idea were good. I began to think twice about this in how the instigator of the whole premise "Scott", tells his very eclectic group of friends about his idea one by one, who ALL think it's so cool and amazing, and that they too MUST commit suicide along with him. The young actors were fairly mediocre, aside from Kris Lemche as "Patrick" who was the only one really able to create a compelling character with some sort of screen presence. I personally did not like any of the characters, especially the main protagonist "Scott" who speaks like a programmed robot, so filled with technical analytical phrases, that he only comes across as a caricature, and his friends have a bit of this too. Even though they're supposed to be non mainstream, in this film, a hodgepodge of sub cultures and social backgrounds so that ALL BASES of teen anxiety are covered, it's hard to imagine anyone being that out of touch with the world they live in, and moreover, "Scott" is able to rationally convince the school bully to return their camera, that he stole, with this very irritating way of speaking.

The Directing/Scene Layout

The directing, combined with a very stagey unravelling of events is what I found amazing that so many other reviewers were able to overlook. The classroom scenes, with the protagonist goofing off with his camera were very badly handled. That just won't happen without the smart ass students as well as the teacher getting in your face about it, and most teachers would confiscate the camera, but no one says a word. Picture having a conversation on your telephone in a classroom. How ridiculous would that be? Also, Patrick's character, spying on everyone with his camera, looking up girl's dresses, masturbating in the girl's washroom, without being seen, heard, or getting in trouble, not to mention abducting a screaming 10 year old in a crowded supermarket, hauling her into the washroom where he rapes and kills her without being seen, heard or caught, is simply just not realistic.

Suicidal Motives

The real crux of the issue however is the suicidal motives of the characters and how they were handled. of the 4 characters who state their cases for WHY they plan to kill themselves: Scott: inner freedom. Sandy: testament to true love. Trudi: domestic discord. Patrick: homicidal urges? None of these are given much background or ANY aside from Trudi's case, though still not convincingly, who ridiculously enough, in all 6 of them is the only one who is shown to have typical problems of depression, the kind you see in most real life suicide cases. The characters, Rick and Cody, who we are given no inner insight into, are wasted, and seem very full of life rather than depression, Particularly Rick, who in this film represents typical quasi hip-hop culture, who doesn't seem to fit in with this group of people at all.

Closing Notes/Film Message

I will close by touching on one of the very last phrases spoken into a camera by the character "Scott" and showing truly how badly the people involved in the making of this film do NOT understand their subject. "Do you want to know the real truth? I did it because I was bored. The number one killer of teenagers today isn't drugs or alcohol... It's just plain boredom.... AND I WAS BORED!". Not only is it hilarious, but it's just plain not true. Any deaths to teenagers caused by boredom result from "Accidental" not "suicidal" deaths such as car crashes, skateboard injuries, auto-asphyxiation or the like. The impulse of suicide tends to come from ANYTHING but boredom, and instead, derives from feeling horrible and emotionally destroyed for whatever causal reasons. True, the character can say anything, and it doesn't matter if it's true or not, but by now, he's been reduced to a talking point with a face, not a character. I watched this horrible film because I was bored, luckily, it did not make me want to kill myself.