Poor Boy

This is a dirty movie, well, dusty may be more appropriate. Brothers Samson and Romeo are introduced trying unsuccessfully to sell back a lawnmower they just stole from an ex. The cops have more trouble trying to hold back the pipe wielding woman than making what should be a routine arrest. This is the arid South, where everyone is scrambling for something, and most folks are dirty.

Our small time hoods have small time dreams, but even those they can't seem to get right. Subsisting in a desert trailer, the duo scheme and scam their days away in hopes of some far fetched pay day, which will take then to California. There's a bit of Grapes of Wrath tumbleweeding through this jerky plot line, capturing present day down and outs and the choking bleakness of their existence.

"Poor Boy" does little justice to several juicy characters in favour of the brothers connection, but that is where the film ultimately succeeds: with the unflinching bond only blood can provide. Lou Taylor Pucci and his strokeable beard is fabulous as the domineering yet utterly misguided big brother, to Dov Tiefenbach's silent but tenaciously game sibling.

It's a gloriously character study and not much more. But sometimes that's all ya need.