The Redemption of Vincent Young

A lot of people criticize Adam Sandler movies for having $80 million dollar budgets with no discernible clues onscreen as to where that money went. Here we don't get to indulge in that past-time with a similar film done with at least four less zero's in the budget.

Writer / Director Fredianelli himself plays multiple characters in the film, a brave choice for sure as well as putting much of the opening flashback act in the hands of child actors and setting it in the 1980's. For the most part, I didn't notice any anachronisms and appreciate that the production designer took such great lengths to track down so many working old school nintendo games.

Much like Adam Sandler's PIXELS, the now grown-up lost souls of the video game generation will have a lot in common with the directionless hero of the film. In a similar scene to the opening of the 1982 "Marco Polo" TV movie, video game addict Vincent's dying mother asks him to go take care of something, in this case to reconcile with the widow and child of his deceased twin brother. Twisted motives, romance, and male bonding ensues, most of which involves the playing of old school video games in some way.

After an O.K. start, the subsequent raunchy humor and awkwardness didn't get a lot of laughs out of me. Fredianelli somehow manages to keep Vincent fairly likable despite having no redeeming qualities. At one point Vincent becomes a homeless vagrant mentored by a veteran transient played by small-time actor James Allen Brewer.

An aside note here: while a lot of the actors here put in some great work, James Allen Brewer completely OWNS this movie. His performance as a washed up alcoholic bum complete with slurred speech and soiled clothing might be one of the most spot-on characterizations of our time! The film is worth watching simply for him, in certainly a huge step up and turnaround from his workmanlike show as a "tough guy gangster" in the only other film I'd seen him in previously, AMERICAN MOONSHINE. Brewer also puts in good work in another film made the same year BLOOD RELATIVE in which he goes back to playing a gangster character, but his performance here is truly a sight to behold. It's a shame that he isn't in the film more.

Much of the film revolves around a very awkward dinner scene with a reasonable amount a tension. I kept anticipating things to get a lot more wild and crazy than they ended up going, leaving me a bit cold and underwhelmed by this viewing experience. THE REDEMPTION OF VINCENT YOUNG is a mixed bag for sure but contains some of the most surprisingly good acting you'll find in such a low budget movie.

Despite a strong start, VINCENT YOUNG is largely a misfire for Wild Dogs Productions. The movie shares many of the same traits we've seen in previous dark comedies from director Fredianelli, but instead of scoring again with a similar formula and characters, the results are mostly sterile. The movie doesn't manage to go anywhere particularly interesting by film's end and doesn't have enough stand out scenes to justify its brand of what amounts to mostly nihilism for nihilism's sake. Sure there's humor, but most of the film's comedic beats are inane and focus on bodily functions.

Let's talk about what the movie does get right though. The aforementioned opening act is a lot of fun. It's a prologue set in 1989 with all the fun art direction touches you'd expect to see for the time period. We get some fun insights into the lead character and his twin brother's childhood. The movie then jumps forward to the present with a blitzkrieg montage featuring the twins. Some nice production values are shown off including a Hawaii location and a hilarious shot involving multiple hookers and mountains of cocaine. The movie utilizes a fun video game motif that begins in the flashback and carries over to the rest of the movie. The retro 8-bit music and titles add some nice flavor along with some clever parallel editing that uses the game play on screen to illustrate a key point in the plot. There's also a nod to YouTube's The Angry Video Game Nerd later in the movie with Fredianelli providing his own AVGN inspired shtick that surpasses even the Nerd's own review of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES for the Nintendo Entertainment System. While this is all well and good, it's unfortunate so much of the movie hinges on including so much unlicensed intellectual property. While the film does have other problems related to watchability, it's a shame it set itself up to probably end up reaching no further than becoming a YouTube upload itself because of this.

Another strong point worth mentioning about the movie is its cast. Everyone performs at the top of their game with Fredianelli (his funniest moment involving him clad as Santa Claus with game controller in hand and pillow-enhanced belly obscuring half of his face) proving capable once again of making the viewer feel sympathetic to an otherwise unsympathetic main character. The supporting players also stand out particularly well and are headlined with a group of actresses that are as charismatic as they are pretty (despite being largely the butt of the movie's bodily waste based humor). Though granted little screen time, an almost unrecognizable James Allen Brewer manages to outshine everyone as a grubby, homeless man with booze induced slurred speech.

As it stands, VINCENT YOUNG has some good ingredients, but never makes much of an impression as a cohesive narrative film. With what it does have going for it, it's too bad the sum of the movie's parts couldn't yield a more satisfying and funny movie.