re:mote voices

Title: Mean Creek
Cast: Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan, Josh Peck, Carly Schroeder
Director: Jacob Aaron Estes

Sam (Culkin) gets beaten up as a result of his latest run in with George (Peck). Something that concerns his potential girlfriend, Millie (Schroeder), and older brother, Rocky (Morgan). This leads to a decision, if Rocky and his friends can come up with a way of getting back at George without hurting him, then Sam is happy to see it happen.

George is a problem child, he has been held back in school a number of times, and so he is older than the other children in his year. He has learning difficulties, but either because of that or as well as that, he is prone to lashing out. At the same time this makes him unpopular, it also makes him lonely. So when he is invited to go boating with Sam, Millie, and Rocky and his friends, he is only too happy to come along.

The plan is to take George out on the river and then humiliate him. However once the group is together, they start to realise that perhaps George is just misunderstood. So there are growing doubts as to whether they should follow through with their plan. But then, in the past George has physically assaulted two of the groups members, and over the course of the day he manages to verbally abuse every one of them.

There are clear parallels between Mean Creek and Larry Clark's Bully. Though this debut feature by writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes has less of the feeling of exploitation, an accusation often made of Clark's work. While Bully may have been based on a true story, Mean Creek is perhaps more interesting because there is more ambiguity involved.

From having seen the trailer before the film, the fact that something bad happens in Mean Creek is not a secret, but the way the kids work off each other and develop we aren't sure whether what is going to happen is going to be an accident or murder. Part of this works because a number of the characters have their own conflicts going on, their own issues.

I would tend to say that the two strongest performances come from the two youngest cast members - Rory Culkin and Carly Schroeder, though in saying that there is clearly a tradition of acting from the Culkin's and Schroeder would appear to have down a handful of other films as well as TV work.