Powder Reviews

by Dane Youssef


Victor Salva's "Powder" is the kind of movie that when you first read it's screenplay, you'd think to yourself... God, this is so full of potential.

Think of the endless possibilities. It just needs a rewrite, maybe even a script doctor and we can make this the talked-about film of the year.

But the movie gets rushed into filming and it's left with an unfinished feeling.

It feels like the studio or the director wanted to make a movie about persecuted outsiders and then thought, "Well, we want this movie to drive people here in hoards. We need a mainstream film... so lets not make it too smart for people to follow and too deep for people to want to get into. We don't wanna go over people's heads."

It takes a truly original character and plugs him into a movie as routine and unremarkable as the bullying, red-neck catalysts who flaunt 85% of the film's supporting roles. Who just gawk and insult 'cause they're so damn screwed-up themselves, on a personal level.

Who's fault is this? The director... or the executives?

"Powder" has some moments that are almost Spielberg-Ian and insights that cause you to think. But there are too many others that almost feel phoned in.

Sean Patrick Flanery plays Jeremy Reed, nicknamed "Powder" is an amazing superhuman who is almost pure energy and conducts electricity better than water or metal. He has the ability to read minds, magnetize and he can also shatter glass telepathically. He is also a genius.

The movie begins with an establishing scene where an expectant mother is driven screaming in an ambulance to the nearest hospital. And not only has her water broke, she has just been struck by lightning.

The father demands to see him. The baby is screaming inside the oxygen tent as if it's a burn victim. It almost seems to know what's going on right now. The cries are deafening and heartbreaking.

And the father abandons him. The boy lives with his grandparents until they die and poor Powder is once again without family.

People who find Powder downstairs in the basement, hiding. From them. From outsiders. From the world.

They bundle him up, take him away to a reform school. Why?

Um... shouldn't he be sent to an orphanage or something? Why throw him in with criminals who can't be tried as adults?

Oh, the formula. Sorry, I forgot.

Jeremy is bullied all throughout the movie and takes way too long to retaliate. As if the director is getting too damn into this or has time to kill. Even when it's clear there's no other choice. "Not much fight in you, huh?" asks one of them at one point. Obviously not.

I can't tell if we takes so long to just use his abilities because he's afraid, he's too good... or the film's gotta too much time to kill and the director's enjoying lashing back.

We see Jeremy's pale as death skin and his defined male form. Salva incorporates this scene because of his preference for the male physique. He shows male nudity in a lot of his movies and homosexual elements. There is a moment that suggests that Jeremy might be gay or some of the other kids in the film might have those elements as well.

These scenes are well-drawn, no doubt related to Salva's experiences dealing with his own sexuality. Salva himself is gay, yes.

Which explains a lot of the endless elaborate homo put-downs throughout the movie and male nudity as well. Even the southern redneck kids don't mind too much getting a gander at Powder's privates.

Of course we need (yes, NEED) scenes where Jeremy is persecuted for the way he is. But there are too many of those. They take up way too much of the movie. A scene in a cafeteria, in the woods and in the gymnasium that moves outside onto the field.

There are many, many scenes where Jeremy shows his endless powers. Yet too many people are slow to catch on, even the smart ones.

There's a truly great scene where a redneck hick deputy sheriff (Brandon Smith) shoots a deer and Powder uses an empathy power so the deputy can feel the deer's pain and suffering.

And another where Jeremy is getting involved with the only sweet girl in town and they have a moment where they share kind of Vulcan mind-meld.

He has every superpower known to man. He's smart, sweet, kind and all-powerful.

But for some reason, he lacks the ability to do the simplest thing and the most obvious thing when the opportunity is right there. So does pretty much everyone else in this film most of the time.

I asked myself, why?

Oh, the formula. Sorry, I forgot.

Jeff Goldblum believes in Jeremy and thinks he could be an advanced step in human evolution. He delivers eloquence about where he explains what Powder is and again later with everything wrong with humanity and how we haven't moved very far in the great human race. And Jeremy could be humanity's answer.

The ending is inevitable, but sad. I guess there was just no other way for Powder or the movie. But you walk away wishing Powder AND the movie itself just did more than have big moments involving special effects, dealing with antagonists and only occasionally having a real moment.

Still, it's a nice renter. Goldblum's lines about humanity will make you think and Patrick Flanery's performance as the title character are all worthwhile.

And there are several scenes that really do stay stuck with you....


--A Unique Soul, Dane Youssef


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