Review: Alpha Dog
This movie looks like an indie picture targeted at the youth demographics. So it’s low budget simple shots and scenery, a generally slow pace and lotsa chit-chat. Though no deeply thought-out dialogue is in play here, simple drama hits the marks here and there, throughout otherwise noisy and pretentious foulmouthed gangster-style story.
Problem must be the usually low profile director Nick Cassavetes, because too often, you will see excellent performances (for instance Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Anton Yelchin) but degraded to too cheesy and corny within minutes. Even Justin Timberlake has his moments (albeit those are counted in microseconds). Some stricter editing might have solved a lot of problems (though using the interview standpoint didn’t work out either), but still several acts just don’t glue well together. Basically, you’re left with the only consistent role, untarnished by the lacking editing skills, a quite remarkable and brutally fierce Ben Foster, who doesn’t even appear in the final 2 acts. As a whole, this movie is shaky at best.5½.