This movie is really good at accentuating how pretty its women are, and how sleazy its men are, and at that mostly outright predatory. To emphasize how good it is at these things, it gives us fairly regular shots of women topless, with additional shots of women in scant clothing, and even fifteen-year old star Robin Mattson is not excluded. To much the same point, even men's own family members are not safe from their predation, and any cops we see in passing are just as rotten. My, my, if all such sleaze were piled any higher then this would be a film about conservative politicians! Somewhere amidst all the dubiousness - further including some deviousness from the female characters, and pointedly, cheekily counterbalanced with very bouncy music - there is a plot about sisters Ellie and Myra looking out for each other, and eventually some shenanigans about dirty money. I say "eventually" because in a runtime of a little over 100 minutes, we're basically halfway through before that plot more or less begins to take shape, and longer still before that plot begins to truly progress. Up to that point, and still more past it, 'Bonnie's kids' is more of a loose assemblage of characters toying with each other in one way or another.
Look, now Ellie and Larry are dancing and giving each other eyes! Well, isn't that just so sweet. Will this turn out to be more important than it's made out to be in the moment? You bet! Conversely, Myra just disappears from our screens for a surprisingly long time.
The premise sounded interesting. I won't argue with filmmaker Arthur Marks, the women are indeed beautiful. The music is catchy and enjoyable, whatever the precise mood it's embracing. The cast give committed, commendable performances, with Mattson and even more so Tiffany Bolling surely standing out most as Myra and Ellie. This is well made in most every regard, including the editing and cinematography, the costume design, the hair and makeup, and so on. I like the narrative in and of itself, and the scene writing is fairly strong. I do like the ideas on hand, including the characterizations, and in fact the material is primed for a rather dark, absorbing, stimulating neo-noir thriller. I think the whole would be far more solid if Marks weren't so lackadaisical about developing that narrative, and if he didn't shove most of the substance into the relatively small corner of the last two-fifths. Very much accentuating the point: just as the overall sleaze is most predominant in the first forty-five to sixty minutes, and the unhurried storytelling, as the plot truly kicks off in the latter half, Marks left himself so much to do and show in such comparatively little time that the pacing seems rushed, failing to give scenes, beats, and ideas all due time to resonate. Oops.
On another note, we can perhaps accept the misogyny, otherwise touches of sexism, and a racial slur as being part and parcel of the saga, and the figures it presents to us. A homophobic exchange of dialogue, however, is plainly unnecessary and earns a demerit.
Anyway, yes, the pacing shifts from "la, la-laa, la-laa" to "go, go, go," and similarly, the tone shifts from "do, dee-do, dee-do" to "oh man, it's going down, now." I'll grant that this tends to be the narrative structure in most any work of fiction, but the shifts here are glaringly unnatural, not to mention forced and brusque owing to Marks' direction. Carson Whitsett's music similarly becomes more intense and grabbing, and it's superb in and of itself - but again the disparity is noteworthy in an unfortunate manner. The first long stretch that traipses along needed to be tightened; the back end needed more room to breathe as the seediness explodes into jarring violence with a swift gait. With all this firmly in mind, I still believe the picture is enjoyable and worthwhile, and it's better than not. Really, at its core this is flush with potential that should have let it stand tall beside its genre brethren. It's just regrettable, therefore, that the faults stand out so vividly, almost threatening to outshine the value 'Bonnie's kids' boasts. By all means, check this out if you have the chance to watch, for it earns a fair recommendation, and may you like it more than I did. Why, I myself want to like it more than I do. Would that the two unequal halves had been treated more carefully.
