Rollercoaster

I'm a sucker for indie flicks and same person writer/director movies. There's less off the Hollywood tampering and making things "Good for the general public" and more heart and reality. Rollercoaster is pure heart - disturbed, angsty, and mildly depressing heart, but pure nonetheless.

MOST people aren't going to like this, aren't going to understand it, and aren't going to be able to grasp such a non-linear format. Some of those "most" won't be able to admit that this could very well be reality, because it doesn't fit into the wonderbubble that is their lives. I'm not most people, I loved it.

The cinematography was beautiful, editing - brilliant, characters (aside from Sanj, admittedly) were exceptionally well developed. I knew those kids growing up.

Brendan Fletcher, though obnoxious in the beginning (his character calls for it, he was playing it well) throws out one of the most heartwrenching lines of the movie with such simple depth and emotion that it gives you chills.

Kett Turton deserves just as much praise playing the one hiding the most from the world. You can see it on his face, but you can't. He's a million people in one, putting on masks to please the people around him, when he's the one that's the most in pain.

It's not for everyone, and it doesn't end the way you want it to. This movie isn't handed to you on a silver platter like most Hollywood flicks - you're given a spork, and some salad tongs, and you have to use your brain to figure out how to cut the prime rib into bite sized edible pieces. But if you're like me, you like a challenge in a good movie.

Not a disaster pic, not teensplatter fare nor a 3-D actioner, "rollercoaster" is a surprising ride about five very real kids who in one day at a closed-down fair come to terms with the everything that is wrong in their lives. Director Scott Smith turns a good tale here and gets his best performance from the explosive Brendan Fletcher, an actor to watch.

"rollercoaster" got great buzz at the Toronto Film Fest, won Most Popular Canadian feature at the Vancouver Film Fest, Best Canadian Feature at the Victoria Independent Film Fest and is nominated for a Leo award, along with Fletcher and Turton each for Best Actor.

When 'rollercoaster' played the Vancouver International Film Fest earlier this year, I thought it demonstrated a kind of emotional depth and a sense of visual style that are exceedingly rare in film these days. While it would be misleading to label the story 'slow', it does have a vaguely European feel to it - a narrative that unfolds more through place and emotional state than through a linear set of events. Ambitious, haunting, and well worthwhile.

Remember being a teenager? The feeling of isolation from everyone and everything? The certainty that things are as bad as they can get and they won't get any better? Scott Smith certainly does, and he uses that knowledge to make the film "rollercoaster" one of the most disturbingly realistic looks at adolescence since "Kids" and "Dazed and Confused" in the mid-'90's.

Darren, Chloe, Justin, Stick, and Sanj are five kids from a Vancouver group home who break into a theme park that's gone out of business and whose equipment is about to be auctioned off. The point of this is Darren and Chloe--pregnant with Darren's child--have made a suicide pact and want their friends to be there with them when they jump off the roller coaster. Justin--Darren's younger brother--and Stick--a sociopathic bully who is secretly in love with Darren--don't like this plan, but feel powerless to stop it.

And that's what this film is really about: feeling powerless. The only way that the suicides can be averted is if these kids express their feelings honestly. Darren needs to tell Chloe he loves her. Justin needs to tell Darren he needs a brother. Stick needs to tell someone he's gay. But these kids only know what they've learned in the group home: hippie-dippie psychobabble alternated with sexual abuse. And so they vandalize cars and drink and smoke pot and Stick beats people up and Justin draws cartoons and they all rail about the meaningless of life.

Because this is a debut film (and because it is from my native Canada), it is riddled with flaws: we never learn much about Sanj, and a subplot about a pedophile security guard just doesn't work. But this is an impressive debut from Scott Smith. Imagine what he could do with a budget (but only as long as he keeps in touch with his inner suicidal teenager)! 7 out of 10.

Part of the success or failure of a movie is whether it can create a plausible sense of time and place. "Roller-coaster" succeeds. It effectively employs scenes that, under different circumstances, would disparagingly be called overused or uninspired, but here they seem fresh and compelling. It reminded me a lot of "Hurricane Streets".

Roller-coaster is the story of five seemingly aimless, conflicted teens from a group home in Vancouver who break into a defunct amusement park. Each of them has a problem or a secret the movie will eventually reveal. Mix all of this with the teens' confrontations with a security guard who at first bullies and torments them. Later it appears that, whether out of boredom or a change of heart, he befriends them. However, his kindness is just a means to an end.

Too many movies are guilty of playing down to the audience. When they show angry teens, the emotion seems contrived. However, "Roller-coaster" manages to make the anger, frustration, confusion, and boredom of growing up seem real. You develop sympathy for the characters because they don't come across as spoiled or irritatingly self-pitying.

Epilogue (added March 14, 2006:) I rented Roller-coaster this past weekend and was amazed at how faulty my memory is. Several years had gone by between the time I first watched the movie and did my review. Roller-coaster is actually better than I remembered. I would now say that it is in the same league as the incredible movie, "Mean Creek".