domdalmasso Wow, I'm actually surprised. I did not expect this movie to be so good since it isn't very known, hard to find, and seems to be of a low budget. I think I'm going to do some research and buy the DVD. Like all the other reviews say, the characters are very realistic. The acting is awesome. I definitely recommend this one.

Neil Turner This is an edgy little film that portrays twelve-year-olds in a far more reasonable light than most films. It doesn't paint a pretty picture, but the picture that it does paint illuminates three young people in a realistic manner.At the beginning of the film, you get a look at four young friends getting on with the kind of things that entertain most kids of twelve years. They share a tree house where they smoke, drink, and discuss the general topics of adolescents.Rudy and Jacob are twins, and the only thing that seems odd is that Jacob wears a hockey mask most of the time. Rudy is the outgoing twin whereas Jacob is the shy thinker. You later find that Jacob has a large birthmark on his face that seems to explain the difference in personality.Leonard is the fat kid from a family of fat parents and siblings.Malee is the girl of the group who is growing up in a broken home with a distant mother and an absent father.The lives of the three remaining are all changed when Rudy is killed and Leonard is injured by two other boys in an act of vandalism.As a result of his injury, Leonard can no longer smell and, therefore, no longer taste. Instead of continuing to indulge in the fried, sweet, and fattening food his mother so lovingly serves, Leonard commences a diet of fruits and vegetables. His whole family - especially his mother - is totally dismayed by his "strange" behavior. He also begins a daily exercise regimen which baffles them even more. The scenes with Leonard and his family are both comic and tragic - as is life itself. In order to "educate" his mother, Leonard commits some desperate but extremely foolish acts.Malee's distant mother is - ironically - a psychologist. Malee encounters one of her mother's patients in the waiting room. She later sees him shirtless at a construction site and becomes overwhelmed with infatuation. She engages in an all-out campaign to seduce him.Jacob is not only traumatized by the death of his twin but is also alienated by the actions of his parents. His father becomes emotionally distant while his mother is so filled with anger that she can think of nothing but vengeance upon the youths who are responsible for the death of her son. In short, neither is there for their living son.Needless-to-say this is all pretty heady stuff, but director Michael Cuesta is masterful in showing the viewer what might actually happen if all this were real. He - rightly so - makes watching the actions of these young people and the adults who surround them extremely uncomfortable. This is especially true in a scene where Malee seeks to sexually seduce the man with whom she has become infatuated. Cuesta's direction of the emotionally charged scene is masterful.Even though you will be shocked and dismayed, I heartedly recommend this film. It's not pretty, but it certainly is insightful.

me_hev The minute this film started playing, I was hooked. The story follows three 12 year olds who are the normal kind of kids you expect to bump into in your neighbourhood. Each has their own issues, as do all 12 year olds, and it is not till an immensely tragic death amongst them occurs, that they start confronting their issues and start trying to deal with them in their own way. Each very different. The story unravels beautifully and there are times you feel like you need to look away, and start squirming with unease and shock, and times you literally burst out laughing and then cry as well.. Well, I did anyway. I would highly recommend this to pretty much everyone I know, I cant believe it slipped through the net, and I have only just seen it. An absolute gem. To say it is like Stand By Me is a bold statement, but a deserved one. Its of the same calibre. Watch it.

victor-200 Because of these two stupid mistakes, a movie with some interesting qualities was ruined. Due to the oversight of the production team this is a really stupid movie.An overweight woman with a broken hip would not be able to move. Any person with a broken hip is completely immobilized 90% of the time. The only way the character's ability to move might be explained by adrenaline and extreme motivation.Natural gas isn't toxic. A gas leak in itself cannot harm the health of a person in any way. What can be toxic is carbon monoxide from improper burning of natural gas, but the burner in the movie was not ignited. The only other health hazard from a gas leak is the risk of explosion, but in the movie there was no explosion. This is a very ignorant oversight, also was used in 'Panic Room' with propane gas which is also non-toxic.A corpse buried in less than a foot of dirt would be extremely obvious to any construction crew. When the boy buried his victim the grave was too shallow to prevent the oder of a rotting corpse to come up from the dirt, and animals would have been attracted to the site by the smell and easily would have dug into the grave exposing the corpse. The oder alone would have been obvious and permeated the area for many yards.I also found it hard to swallow when the psychiatrist mom didn't drop her patient after learning that her twelve year old daughter was found standing naked in the patient's kitchen.Because of these stupid errors this movie is a dog, which is a shame since it's due to production errors alone.