Spoilers. (I suppose, thought part of the effectiveness of the film is in knowing what happens. But better safe than sorry...)
Alpha Dog is not a great film, it has lots of problems, but it's a good film on important, relevant themes. And it's mostly well-made; the build-up to a bizarre, heart-rending climax is at times excruciatingly tense and utterly believable. Based on the true story of a 15-yr old kid who was "kidnapped" and later murdered by a teen drug dealer and his friends so they could get the money owed them from his older brother, the film is full of complex relationships and wild circumstances between the characters that are continually evolving until it seems there is only one way it can all work itself out from their so-skewed pov. The cast of young actors are impressive; everyone of them, down to the most minor characters, are utterly naturalistic. (In this sense, and in some of the themes and subject matter, it reminded me of the much inferior "Bully". I don't think "Bully" is a very good movie, but the acting by the - at the time - unknown young cast is nothing short of astounding. It's like the filmmakers went out and found kids who were living that life and built a plot around their personalities. To later see these same actors in other films playing different characters is something of a jolt. AD has some of this same feel of absolute realism.)
It's after the killing that Cassavetes makes a terrible mistake. He has a long, long interview scene w/Sharon Stone in heavy makeup playing the mother in present-day. It doesn't work, it seems to belong in a completely different film. The style of the scene is completely different than anything that has gone before and grinds the movie to a halt. The worst thing is that we can see Stone is acting, she's giving a performance, and the contrast w/the naturalism of the young cast is so jarring that it takes us out of the story. All momentum is lost.
Another serious error is that Cassavetes completely drops the most interesting character right at the climax. Ben Foster as Jake, the older brother of the kidnapped boy, is fascinating, and Foster is brilliant. At times he seems over-the-top, the character is an constant rage throughout the entire film, but Foster somehow manages to be both stylized and natural, it's an amazing performance. This guy is going to be a major, major star. There's a scene where he screams into the phone in such blind fury, holding the receiver away from him like a microphone (a clever acknowledgment that his character is "acting out") that it's hilarious and genuinely frightening at the same time.
There are also some deeply moving, quiet scenes throughout, as the kidnapped boy keeps making friends w/everybody he meets because he's so likable and naive and nonchalant. The kid is having an adventure and Alec Vigil manages to convey the innocence of his youth w/o self-consciousness or artifice. The sequence in the pool when he loses his virginity is especially poignant because by that time we know his horrible fate at one of the most wonderful times of his short life. A great use of dramatic irony.
A good film, if only they'd cut out those awkward interview sequences, it could have been great.
Harold
