Review of Ace High

What a strange film. Every once in a while there's something interesting; much more often things seem completely random. Characters motivations are inconsistent. The plot is needlessly complex. And someone shoved random scenes and plot elements into a shotgun and fired at the script: a multi-barrel gun (which I don't recall being used), a boxing match, a card game to reclaim some money. It's all over the place. At one point, an antagonist makes a racist remark and we get a fast zoom (the funniest shot) on the face of a black character. Racism wasn't an established theme in this movie before this point. And despite the drama, nothing comes of this. The ending is interesting--contrapuntal music, a timing device, a many-peopled showdown. But it's surrounded by peculiar inexplicable details.