Complete credited cast: | |||
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Malcolm Stumpf | ... | Logan |
Patrick White | ... | Rodeo | |
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Max Paradise | ... | Joey |
Fairuza Balk | ... | Logan's Mom | |
Kim Dickens | ... | The Counselor | |
Tom Gilroy | ... | The Principal | |
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Ruth Elliott | ... | Leah (voice) |
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Joey Coffman | ||
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Tim Greer | ... | Teacher |
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Dash Mann | ||
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Derek Mitchler | ||
Kylee Mains | ... | Excited woman / Teacher (as Kylee Lehe) | |
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Teresa Morales | ||
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James Porter | ||
Bernadette Wilson | ... | Teacher |
Junior high in a time of rotary phones. Cougars have been spotted in the area. Logan is 13, the odd kid, with an active imagination and few friends. His young, single mother seems stressed. Latency is giving way to puberty, and Logan, who keeps a tube of lipstick in his dresser, may be gay or, more mysterious, transgender. He stares at himself in the mirror. He becomes friends with Rodeo, older and more mature, good-looking, with girlfriends. They take walks. Logan calls Rodeo and pretends to be a girl. Will he disclose himself to Rodeo? The kids at school talk. The school wants to promote kindness and tolerance. There are stories of child suicide. How do we find our way? Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
Instead of making a fascinating film about the development of a "crush" in adolescence, the filmmaker has managed to create a hollow story that goes nowhere, develops none of the characters, and is apparently attempting to be poetic and arty about the subject of sex involving a boy's obsessive love for a fellow classmate.
The dullness begins with the opening credits which are so blurry that you're left wondering just what it is we're supposed to be observing. Unfortunately, that feeling never lets up even as the slim story moves forward, never letting us see or feel what the main characters are thinking or even doing. Instead, we get a series of close-ups, dull conversations, and it becomes painfully obvious that the abstract subtleties will continue in the same vein throughout without ever giving any real glimpse into the childhood fantasies gnawing at the central character. The attempt is made but it fails to involve the viewer.
None of the performances are worth commenting on--not the mother (whom we never understand or get to know), nor the boy playing the maladjusted youth. Only PATRICK WHITE shows some semblance of understanding his role as the handsome, open minded youth who doesn't mind being the target of infatuation and is open to an approach by the most unpopular kid in class. He registers the correct mixture of surprise and rejection in the cave sequence where he has been led to believe that a girl wants a sexual liaison with him. Other than his one note performance, all the others are even less impressive. The doting mother is a character that is never fleshed out by the script or the performer.
The self-conscious artistry of the whole work is wasted because there is no real story, nor is there a satisfying ending.
Summing up: A total waste of time on a subject that should be explored in a more serious, detailed and sensitive light by a good independent filmmaker.