The epigraph to T.C. Boyle's short story, "It's about a mile down on the dark side of route 88" from Bruce Springsteen's "Spirits In the Night," precludes a story about three "badass" teenage boys whose night of cultivating the decadence of rebellion takes a life-altering turn for the worse. Director Damian Harris's film adaptation accurately depicts the tone, plot, mood, and irony of T.C. Boyle's reflection on the woes of growing up.
The movie begins with the narrator, actor Eric Stoltz, describing the setting as a time when "courtesy and winning ways went out of style," it was "good to be bad," and you "cultivated decadence like a taste." His low, grovelly voice speaks slowly, almost too slowly, with a subtle-mock seriousness recalling a time that a now older T.C. knows was anything but "bad." The loud, eerie, and synthetic noises and music enhance the grave, serious mood and build a mounting sense of anticipation. The music often reflects the scene it accompanies. One example includes an early, moonlit scene of Digby practicing martial arts in which Chinese gongs, drums, and symbols accompany and compliment his movements.
The actors are all much too pretty to seem rough or like real troublemakers. They are clearly irresponsible, as the beginning scene with one of them taking a bath while listening to headphones (could have electrocuted himself to death) illustrates. But as much as the characters would like to think that they're rebels, the main character T.C. can't even drive his mom's wood-panelled Volvo station wagon without asking for permission. Later in the night, close up shots to the boys faces reveal how naiive, terrified, and insignificant they suddenly feel as they struggle to comprehend (and survive) the larger, albeit painful, moral lesson to which their fates are inextricably tied. Images of night, day, light and darkness symbolize the transformation of the main character, T.C.. Not only does a bright, glistening sun rise upon the horrific image of a dark and gloomy greasy lake, but the chaotic, unsettling sounds of the lake at night give way to cheerily chirping crickets and birds in the morning.
Overall, the movie does a great job recreating Boyle's classic story of three badass boys forced by tragedy to grow up and face reality.
The movie begins with the narrator, actor Eric Stoltz, describing the setting as a time when "courtesy and winning ways went out of style," it was "good to be bad," and you "cultivated decadence like a taste." His low, grovelly voice speaks slowly, almost too slowly, with a subtle-mock seriousness recalling a time that a now older T.C. knows was anything but "bad." The loud, eerie, and synthetic noises and music enhance the grave, serious mood and build a mounting sense of anticipation. The music often reflects the scene it accompanies. One example includes an early, moonlit scene of Digby practicing martial arts in which Chinese gongs, drums, and symbols accompany and compliment his movements.
The actors are all much too pretty to seem rough or like real troublemakers. They are clearly irresponsible, as the beginning scene with one of them taking a bath while listening to headphones (could have electrocuted himself to death) illustrates. But as much as the characters would like to think that they're rebels, the main character T.C. can't even drive his mom's wood-panelled Volvo station wagon without asking for permission. Later in the night, close up shots to the boys faces reveal how naiive, terrified, and insignificant they suddenly feel as they struggle to comprehend (and survive) the larger, albeit painful, moral lesson to which their fates are inextricably tied. Images of night, day, light and darkness symbolize the transformation of the main character, T.C.. Not only does a bright, glistening sun rise upon the horrific image of a dark and gloomy greasy lake, but the chaotic, unsettling sounds of the lake at night give way to cheerily chirping crickets and birds in the morning.
Overall, the movie does a great job recreating Boyle's classic story of three badass boys forced by tragedy to grow up and face reality.