Riders
(2001)
Watching this film you get the impression that scripter
and director Doug Sadler watched far to many TV-Movies-of-the-Week
as a child. "Riders" somehow manages to pay homage to
(or perhaps steal from) "The Burning Bed" and every
other abused wife, abused child, sexual abuse, and teenage
runaway movie that ever aired on the Big Three networks.
Granted, the film is well directed, wonderfully acted
and professionally slick for a DV production. It's just
that we get the nagging feeling that we've seen all
of this before. It gets real boring real fast. Even
the charm and skill of lead Bodine Alexander can't overcome
the endless dangling cliches that permeate the film.
The film is about Alex, a boyish teenage girl who
is "coming of age." When her mother starts dating a
creep named Ned, Alex looks for any reason to make him
look bad to her mother. Alex also has a little 10 year
old sister, Sarah, whom she adores. When she comes home
to find Ned toweling off Sarah after her bath, in a
scene that is creepy in its near pedophilia, Sarah freaks
out. But this scene is particularly well acted and well
executed. We are just not sure if Ned is really trying
to molest Sarah or be a good father figure. It's a tough
call. Don Harvey, as Ned, who looks like Robert Morse's
psychotic fraternal twin, really does an excellent job
of creating a character that is just real enough and
just asshole enough to annoy the fuck out of us. You
just want to kick this guy's smug little ass.
This fear for her sister's well-being, leads Alex
to hit the road, with Sarah in tow, looking for her
absentee father. For much of the film, we have a teenage
coming of age flick that has nice moments between the
sisters but ultimately fails with its silly plot trappings.
Even later, there is a grotesquely homophobic lesbian
scene where Alex meets some trippy college aged girls.
I can't recall a film before that was so disgusting
in its depiction of lesbianism as "evil." I wanted to
wretch.
"Riders" ends with a segment that find Ned emerging
as indeed the bad guy Alex presumes he is. The final
20 minutes of this film are laughable in their depiction
of claptrap child abuse syndrome bullshit. The entire
film, which has been rather drab but at least somewhat
believable to this point, falls hopelessly apart. In
the final reel, "Riders" hitchhikes with overblown typicality
and ridiculous pop psychology horsecrap. Let me off
at the next stop.
This Film Reviewed
from the 2001 Austin Film festival!
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Report
Card
Script:
D-
Acting: A
Cinematography\Lighting: A
Special Effects\Make Up: A
Music: A-
Final
Grade: D-
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