Stealing Cars

The cinematography is a bit uninspired. However, it's nice to see heroism attached to intelligence rather than revenge for a change. How many films tackle the subject of human genius up against a world of mediocrity? How many films attempt to describe the need for and the requirements for- leadership? Basically humanity is obviously too stupid to solve its problems. That's why they are still with us after 10,000 years. Evidently we are slow learners. Part of the reason for this is that we have damned few cultural/media heroes who possess actual genius. And part of the reason for that state of affairs is Hollywood's reluctance to portray genius as desirable, effective or even romantic. The Dogme 95 film movement created a new standard of honesty in cinema. We now desperately need a film movement that wittingly makes us smarter...a Didactic Cinema. The need is certainly there.

This is a hard nut to chew when not knowing if its rotten or good. its about juvenile dilligents in a correction camp somewhere in usa. its all from murder,rape to petty crimes, mingled up in a one fence ,one barb wire one gate joint, that seems rather easy to bail out from. the main of the story, are an unfortunate boy that once did a great mistake when driving a car, and as an act of redemtion to himself he starts to steal cars to runaway from his wrong doings. unfortunately his ad/hd demeanors and vocal talents ,gives him more bash of thrash to his record.

productionwise i feel the story shows signs of incoherence, the cams are at times too close up, and the editing seems on overdrive. this is maybe, that its a cliche thing, that weve all seen before in other settings and other actors. the acting are good enough, how it reflects the true world,i shall not say.

youll need patience and maybe see it through a couple of times to really enjoy, just recommendable the grumpy old man says.

Some sluggish direction and pacing rob Stealing Cars of being a really great film about juvenile crime and incarceration. Stealing Cars is in a tradition of films like this that go back to James Cagney's Mayor In Hell.

Emory Cohen is our brilliant protagonist in the sense of one high IQ. Yet he's in the Bernwood Correctional Facility for a tragic mistake that has made him forgot to care about anything. His role model seems to be Paul Newman from Cool Hand Luke.

Besides Cohen the acting honors go to John Leguizamo as the warden of the place. Is scene with Cohen where Cohen finally breaks down and we learn the reason for his cynicism is brilliant. But we also learn that Leguizamo has his own agenda and it's not a healthy one.

I'm agreeing with another reviewer that the characters besides these two have no real depth as written and no great direction to make them come to life. Still Stealings Cars is a worthwhile film to watch.

This is one of those films which didn't have too much cash to splash but tries to counter that with meaningful story and perhaps a little more alternative approach. Stealing Cars focuses around a teenage boy who basically has emotionally fallen apart, but rather than being sad and isolated starts to "rebel" and does some no good.

And the film does quite a few things right, actually. It keeps the viewers guessing what's going on until the very end and has some fine twists there. But it is almost good and really misses hardly making the experience feel logical and gives the overall impression of cutting too many corners.

Let's start with the title - it has almost nothing to do with car stealing, so anyone hoping to see some sort of Gone in 60 Seconds style movie will be vastly disappointed. Sometimes, of course, this kind of title with hidden meaning is completely fine, but on this certain instance, this almost feels like lying. Instead, this is essentially a prison movie, which takes place in the juvy. We see our main character Billy gaining the trust and respect of others thanks to his rather charismatic behavior and finally revealing us the key problem of his mindset.

The problem there is that the writing really doesn't support that. Billy is made so incredibly obnoxious and stupid (in many ways) that it gets almost impossible to take him seriously. He often gives some really weird speeches, disobeys the orders and gets the whole collective in trouble. Still none of his comrades seemed to care and started to look him up, if anything else. The good side of the character was that he really didn't care what would come to him. He was literally fearless and this gave him a little credibility, but all in all was still rather unbelievable.

Even though it seemingly was more of an alternative film, it still contains many clichés - the outcast, the sick kid, who befriends Billy, hot nurse who became a love interest for Billy and finally - surprise, surprise - a rather cruel warden. OK, he wasn't too mean, like wardens in many similar movies, but the sense of this heavily clichéd character was definitely present. And Billy himself was also a good talented kid with exceptional memory gone bad. The film used some non linear storytelling, but it only focused around the key point and could have told us a little more background.

All the supporting characters were somehow dull and didn't have much depth. It was almost as if they just were there and even if they seemed to have a purpose, most of them never really opened up and didn't add much to the plot.

Ultimately Stealing Cars is not a great film. On a positive note this is somewhat psychological trip which dwells into a confused mind, has few nice twists and isn't all that predictable. I understand what the producers wanted to show us, but the way it was constructed wasn't particularly convincing. Main problems are dull side characters and a monotonous plot which is hard to take seriously because of the oddly acting Billy.

And one last time - that title....

I highly recommend this movie. It's one of those movies that worth watching. Good performances. The main character, a really clever and complex boy will make you more and more interested. The performance by Emory Cohen is very powerful. I have to say that this movie caught me since the beginning. If you feel a particular interest in independent films, you should watch this one.