Non-linear recount of how the lives of apparently aimless people collided viscously on one hot California day.
The use of non-diegetic time is justified given the back tracking to follow a new character though I'm not sure what they thought they were doing by 7:13 visibly changing to 7:14. It's fine I guess. What doesn't really work is the "last-time-on" style montages that skate over the things we have already seen and it is very inelegant.
That might be my worst criticism of this bombastic ride of unfortunate meet ups, misunderstandings and a lot at stake.
It's so good to see Josh Peck now playing unscrupulous slacker that didn't make me think of Josh Nichols (you know, Drake's brother) once.
He is juxtaposed to his reluctant best friend who thinks he's going somewhere and that somewhere is Brazil for reasons that are never disclosed. He does not even speak the language.
There is a surprise triteragonist though in the form of the boys' boss; an apparently straightlaced man that goes further and further down into insanity, partly for the acting, is a nauseating treat to watch.
Slick and dynamic cinematically, at one point they do split screens in the food store, I suppose to evoke the advertisements used for it.
I wonder if the bawdy, often pointless dialogue exchanges between highly tightly wound people is a nod to Pulp Fiction but this is so much more engagingly written than anything he has ever done.
Overall an unflinching but still somewhat life affirming tale but I am ticked off that the cops never got what's coming to them.
The use of non-diegetic time is justified given the back tracking to follow a new character though I'm not sure what they thought they were doing by 7:13 visibly changing to 7:14. It's fine I guess. What doesn't really work is the "last-time-on" style montages that skate over the things we have already seen and it is very inelegant.
That might be my worst criticism of this bombastic ride of unfortunate meet ups, misunderstandings and a lot at stake.
It's so good to see Josh Peck now playing unscrupulous slacker that didn't make me think of Josh Nichols (you know, Drake's brother) once.
He is juxtaposed to his reluctant best friend who thinks he's going somewhere and that somewhere is Brazil for reasons that are never disclosed. He does not even speak the language.
There is a surprise triteragonist though in the form of the boys' boss; an apparently straightlaced man that goes further and further down into insanity, partly for the acting, is a nauseating treat to watch.
Slick and dynamic cinematically, at one point they do split screens in the food store, I suppose to evoke the advertisements used for it.
I wonder if the bawdy, often pointless dialogue exchanges between highly tightly wound people is a nod to Pulp Fiction but this is so much more engagingly written than anything he has ever done.
Overall an unflinching but still somewhat life affirming tale but I am ticked off that the cops never got what's coming to them.