LoginTo be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this movie but since there was really interesting cast involved (Anton Yelchin, Diane Lane, Donald Sutherland, Chris Evans, Kristen Stewart, Paz de la Huerta), I was quite eager to check it out. Basically, it was a typical quirky indie comedy but they tried eventually to become more serious and, at some point, it became more a drama. Anyway, the plot was not really mindblowing and there was a collection of weird and excentric characters. Some of them were really neat, like Anton Yelchin and Donald Sutherland but I wasn't so convinced by Diane Lane. I mean, she was charming as usual but even though she started as a junkie, whithin 10 minutes, she became a standard mother and her drug past was never to be noticed in her performance ever again. In my opinion, one of the main issue with this flick was that there were way too many characters and most of them were actually barely developped. For example, Chris Evans was pretty interesting but we never really learned anything about his character. It's too bad since Yelchin and Sutherland were very good and the story had some potential. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look especially if you like this genre.
Fierce People Reviews
An average movie
Posted : 12 years, 8 months ago on 10 September 2011 07:18
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Fierce People
Posted : 13 years, 8 months ago on 6 September 2010 01:28
If you put aside the fact that its final half hour teeters on the ridiculous, Fierce People is pretty much a brilliant movie. The first half features very well-crafted dialogue; it's not often that we're pleasantly surprised with the way dark comedy is handled in a film, but here's a fine instance of that. The second half takes a turn for the serious, and it doesn't work AS well as the first half, but that doesn't take away from the entertainment value. Because the second half takes a turn towards the thriller realm, plot contrivances inevitably ensue, but they're not as bad as what we've witnessed in other movies.
Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland are very good here, and it really is a shame that it was so difficult to get Fierce People released (the process has taken years, apparently) because the solid performances work to make this a really involving cinematic experience.
A few days ago, I reviewed Charlie Bartlett and observed that Anton Yelchin's performance as the title character wasn't particularly amazing, but that I still thought he had a lot of potential, especially after seeing his work in Alpha Dog. Although Fierce People was obviously filmed long before either Alpha Dog or Charlie Bartlett (as you can clearly tell by how much younger Yelchin looks in this one), it's evident that his acting talent was already more than solid when he did Fierce People, and now this just serves as further evidence that he's one to watch. As Finn, Yelchin is effective in a lot of ways, whether it be scenes in which he needs to be funny or scenes in which he needs to be scared (emphasis on the traumatic scene in which he's lying in bed, once the film has taken a turn towards the serious realm).
On a similar line, Kristen Stewart has been in plenty of movies in which she's been able to show us her range as a very good young actress. After playing Jodie Foster's daughter in Panic Room, in 2007 she played memorable characters in Into The Wild and In The Land Of Women. Here, she wisely avoids turning Maya into a stereotypical spoiled rich girl, and instead gives us a character who is hindered by how unaware she is of what is happening around her, yet isn't a conceited brat.
As a film that aims its arrows at the upper-class and that comments on what financial privilege can do to people, Fierce People is a thousand times better than The Nanny Diaries, another recent film that covered similar ground. While the former isn't ashamed to take the realistic path and depict several disturbing aspects on screen, the latter played it safe so freakin much that it was nearly unbearable. The Nanny Diaries was absolutely horrible; Fierce People is a veritable masterpiece next to it. Ironically, Chris Evans starred in both movies, and his work in both films actually serves as a great tool to compare them. In both cases, he plays the privileged, rich kid (in fact, he's a Harvard student in both films), yet his character in The Nanny Diaries (who we know simply as Harvard Hottie) is such a dumbed-down, annoyingly simplistic fellow so as to make you gag, while in Fierce People, he's deliciously arrogant as Bryce. Put it this way: if the stupid and irritatingly innocent Harvard Hottie came across Bryce in the woods at night, he should run for his life, or the devilish Bryce will make him squeal... literally. And let me tell you, my referring to Evans' character in The Nanny Diaries so negatively is a big deal, because 99% of the time, I find Evans to be immensely attractive, but he was so grating in that movie that I forgot all about that momentarily. On the other hand, in Fierce People he takes full advantage of his charming great looks to make for a perfect interpretation of a self-important rich bastard, who pretends to be Finn's friend but, as you'll surely expect, ends up screwing him (in more ways than you might think).
With all that said, there's no question that the last few scenes of Fierce People stumble a bit in making everything seem plausible. It's not as jaw-droppingly contrived as other things we've seen, but there's a feeling that it could've been handled better. Other than that, this is a decent film, one of those unfortunate cases in which distribution problems didn't give it the exposure it certainly deserved, but hopefully a lot of people will discover it on DVD and appreciate what this truly talented cast brings to it.
Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland are very good here, and it really is a shame that it was so difficult to get Fierce People released (the process has taken years, apparently) because the solid performances work to make this a really involving cinematic experience.
A few days ago, I reviewed Charlie Bartlett and observed that Anton Yelchin's performance as the title character wasn't particularly amazing, but that I still thought he had a lot of potential, especially after seeing his work in Alpha Dog. Although Fierce People was obviously filmed long before either Alpha Dog or Charlie Bartlett (as you can clearly tell by how much younger Yelchin looks in this one), it's evident that his acting talent was already more than solid when he did Fierce People, and now this just serves as further evidence that he's one to watch. As Finn, Yelchin is effective in a lot of ways, whether it be scenes in which he needs to be funny or scenes in which he needs to be scared (emphasis on the traumatic scene in which he's lying in bed, once the film has taken a turn towards the serious realm).
On a similar line, Kristen Stewart has been in plenty of movies in which she's been able to show us her range as a very good young actress. After playing Jodie Foster's daughter in Panic Room, in 2007 she played memorable characters in Into The Wild and In The Land Of Women. Here, she wisely avoids turning Maya into a stereotypical spoiled rich girl, and instead gives us a character who is hindered by how unaware she is of what is happening around her, yet isn't a conceited brat.
As a film that aims its arrows at the upper-class and that comments on what financial privilege can do to people, Fierce People is a thousand times better than The Nanny Diaries, another recent film that covered similar ground. While the former isn't ashamed to take the realistic path and depict several disturbing aspects on screen, the latter played it safe so freakin much that it was nearly unbearable. The Nanny Diaries was absolutely horrible; Fierce People is a veritable masterpiece next to it. Ironically, Chris Evans starred in both movies, and his work in both films actually serves as a great tool to compare them. In both cases, he plays the privileged, rich kid (in fact, he's a Harvard student in both films), yet his character in The Nanny Diaries (who we know simply as Harvard Hottie) is such a dumbed-down, annoyingly simplistic fellow so as to make you gag, while in Fierce People, he's deliciously arrogant as Bryce. Put it this way: if the stupid and irritatingly innocent Harvard Hottie came across Bryce in the woods at night, he should run for his life, or the devilish Bryce will make him squeal... literally. And let me tell you, my referring to Evans' character in The Nanny Diaries so negatively is a big deal, because 99% of the time, I find Evans to be immensely attractive, but he was so grating in that movie that I forgot all about that momentarily. On the other hand, in Fierce People he takes full advantage of his charming great looks to make for a perfect interpretation of a self-important rich bastard, who pretends to be Finn's friend but, as you'll surely expect, ends up screwing him (in more ways than you might think).
With all that said, there's no question that the last few scenes of Fierce People stumble a bit in making everything seem plausible. It's not as jaw-droppingly contrived as other things we've seen, but there's a feeling that it could've been handled better. Other than that, this is a decent film, one of those unfortunate cases in which distribution problems didn't give it the exposure it certainly deserved, but hopefully a lot of people will discover it on DVD and appreciate what this truly talented cast brings to it.
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