96 Minutes (2011)

The Worst Film Ever

Pretty Good

Admirable film.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie opens with a night time scene of 4 youths riding in a car looking for a hospital because one of the girls is shot in the face. The shooter is also in the car and doesn't want to go to jail. We then flash back to the separate lives of the 4 individuals, in far too typical indie fashion, to see what they were doing that day and how their lives came together.Carley (Brittany Snow) is a pre-law student who has father issues. She is a driver and wants to graduate with honors. Lena (Christian Serratos) has decided to leave her uncaring boyfriend Michael (Adam Trahan). Dre (Evan Ross) is in college and an escapee from a bad neighborhood. He thinks of himself as being part of the gang, when really he is a good kid. Kevin (Jonathan Michael Trautmann) is a white boy with an abusive home life. He will do anything to join a gang.The film has good acting and a decent plot. The production seems to be aimed at helping would-be gangstas who are still in school and not old white guys like me. If you like the indie style, give it a view.F-bomb, no sex, no nudity.

One of the things that might bring the movie down for you (as it did for me), was/is the acting. It is very crucial to feel or at least be with those characters along the ride (no pun intended). The movie does not achieve that goal wholly in my humble opinion. So while this is dramatic (and the storyline with flashbacks shouldn't be confusing, it's actually adding to the suspense up to a point), it fails to really completely suck you in.Is reality that bleak though, is what some people seem to ask, and the answer can be yes. It depends where you live and what you consume. I was a bit mad at first, because the movie showed one character playing a war game and this character is hostile. It feeds into clichés, which isn't really good. Fortunately they also showed, that other factors are playing a role in the development of ones character. Decent overall, worth a watch I'd say

This movie follows four young people struggling in their own way with their education. The main male lead is a senior high school student (Evan Ross) who grew up in a terrible environment, and tries to escape his "fate" (or what people expect him to become) by studying hard and trying to get a good education. An excellent, excellent movie! The two leading actors (and most others) just did a great job! We saw the part of the movie crew at a premiere; they explained that beyond the heavy tension of the movie, they actually had a hard time not spending their time laughing with each other... This totally did not show up on the screen, the movie is tensed throughout and the acting (again) just excellent. The directing is just sublime as well, excellent shot decisions that gives the proper atmosphere to the movie with a lot of close up shots to focus on the characters.

I thought this movie was going to be a thriller, but I couldn't believe what a great drama it was! The story is really compelling and really draws you in. You think you know where the story is going because of all the flashbacks, but there were several twists and turns that I did not see coming, and by the end I was biting my nails trying to figure out how it would all play out.The acting in this movie was simply superb, really heart wrenching. I haven't seen a lot of Brittany Snow's other work (I saw Hairspray, and obviously this character was way different than her character in Hairspray) but I was really impressed by what a great job she did in this movie, she seemed very comfortable with her character and wasn't really "acting" at all. Of course the other actors were great as well, I was just especially impressed with Brittany. The other thing that really stuck out for me (in a good way) was the music in this movie. The score was beautiful and really helped underscore the drama that was happening on screen. And did you notice the way that songs subtly tie together two scenes (and two story lines)? Overall it's a great movie with a lot of heart, and I can't wait to see it again!