"Alpha Dog" comes in at B-minus in Yahoo sampling
After reading about everything the Internet had to offer about Jesse James Hollywood this week, I'm looking forward to catching "Alpha Dog" this weekend. Yahoo's sampling of leading moving reviews has the film grading B-minus, which I figured. It got lukewarm response at Sundance a year ago.
The movie, directed by Nick Cassavettes, is a fictional story loosely based on the real-life kidnapping and murder of a 15-year-old California teen allegedly committed by Hollywood's gang of pot-smoking thugs (they've all gone to trial and been sentenced; Hollywood was on the lam for four years or so in Brazil). The face of drugs and murder that we so often read about and see on the news is skewed in our minds here, as it's basically involving fairly well-do-to white kids who kill over a $1,200 or so debt for pot. In fact, that kind of craziness has found its way into Pulaski County, if you've been watching.
Looks like Justin Timberlake gets decent reviews (and he was pretty good as well hosting a "Saturday Night Life" a while back). Emile Hirsch plays the character based on Jesse James Hollywood. Cassavettes was given access to sealed police files and such on the Hollywood case by the prosecutor during the making of the film; a suit was filed to prevent its screening but was thrown out. Should be a good escape from the weekend's rain.
