★ 7 / 10
**_Coming-to-death in declining America_** Seven youths in a
Wuchak
**_Coming-to-death in declining America_** Seven youths in a town 40 miles southwest of Chicago try to find meaning, purpose, love and happiness, but without a…
**_Coming-to-death in declining America_**
Seven youths in a town 40 miles southwest of Chicago try to find meaning, purpose, love and happiness, but without a spiritual compass veer toward crime and tragedy.
"Savage Youth" (2018) is a dark coming-of-age drama with gritty realism and an artsy flair similar to films like “Kids,” “White Rabbit,” "Undertow" and “Back Roads.” The difference is that this one is based on the real-life Nightmare on Hickory Street Murders that took place on January 9, 2013, although the names have been changed (as usual), along with other necessary alterations.
Will Brittain is charismatic in a brooding way as Jason, patterned after the ringleader of the small gang, Joshua Miner, who was 24. The other three key white youths were 18-19 while the two black guys were 22. Being a little older with a certain amount of charisma, it’s not hard to see how he could mislead the others with his harebrained schemes.
At the end of the day, this is a realistic portrayal of youths growing up in declining American despair. Don’t expect a fun time, but a sad, empty, one-note commentary. If you can roll with this, it’s effectively done, not to mention a necessary artistic documentation.
The film runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in Joliet, Illinois, and Chicago.
GRADE: B
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★ 6 / 10
As a story it's good, as a re-telling of reality it's horrible.
LnineB
If this was a standalone movie with an original story, I would think it's good story. The acting is good and the performances are believable. But the story is…
If this was a standalone movie with an original story, I would think it's good story. The acting is good and the performances are believable. But the story is flat and confusing without context. The problem is the fact that the story has context that the writer completely decided to ignore.
The movie's climax portrays an incident that's almost innocent, a sad tragedy of four misguided youth that almost says that ..."if only these kids had better parents, opportunities or choices , the tragedy wouldn't have happened."
In reality this is based on a true story that the writer admitted to researching through social media and not talking to any family members or even the killers. He also admitted to attending the funerals and trials but used very little of the real story. He cloaks that decision with a " exhaustive creative research" justification.
The problem with all of this is that in his attempt to tell a "real" story, he portrays an "alternative facts" story that's actually more Hollywood than reality.
There are millions of misguided kids out their that lived in a racially tense environments that didn't murder two of their acquaintances in cold blood and that alone would make a great movie. But this real story is far from that.
The real story is a story of a very privileged criminal that was allowed to torment his friends and their families without barely having a record before he committed this crime. The men and girls admitted to killing the other two and having sex on top of the dead bodies. He also admitted to trying to skin one of victims face off in order to post it on Instagram. All of this was left out of the movie because I guess it would've spoiled The good kids gone wrong creative story.
My point is , a story about the troubles of growing up in the Midwest would've been an amazing study even without murder. But to take a real life murder to creatively alter reality just seems lazy and disrespectful.
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★ 2 / 10
Young rapper bores ihs way through life
mancinibrown
Savage Youth is apparently based on a true story, though I didn't look into the background. We're introduced to three teenagers, who are trying to make it as…
Savage Youth is apparently based on a true story, though I didn't look into the background. We're introduced to three teenagers, who are trying to make it as rappers. Otherwise they seem to have nothing in life. They hang out with two girls, and a serious relationship forms. The relationship ends, and jealousy ensues.
That basically is the story of the movie, but I couldn't wait for it to end. The relationship of the characters was incredibly shallow and unbelievable. How they went from friends to madly in love to broken up didn't seem to have any actions causing it. Then watching her form a new friendship and the consequences of that were irrational as well.
Please don't waste your time with this.
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50%
AUDIENCE
5.3/10
477
•••
absolute trash! I would bypass this junk!