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PLOT: Rich kids leading vapid, wannabe-gangster lives turn an impulsive act into a tragedy.
Alpha Dog is loosely based on a real-life kidnapping that took place in California six years ago. It's a fascinating story, and one you don't really want to hear. You can be fairly sure about what happens next in Alpha Dog, but in what you might call cinematic denial, you'll spend a lot of time cringing and shrinking back in your seat and hoping you're wrong.
In Alpha Dog, Emile Hirsch stars as Johnny Truelove, an old-fashioned juvenile delinquent all dressed up in new money. Helped by his father (Bruce Willis), Johnny sells drugs in his San Gabriel Valley neighbourhood and runs with a posse of weak cling-ons and wannabes. Johnny talks a good game and fancies himself an outlaw, but it's quickly established that he's a coward and a bully.
His gang includes Elvis (Shawn Hatosy) who worships Johnny despite all the abuse he takes from Johnny's friends, and Frankie (Justin Timberlake), who's smarter than Elvis, but still a loser.
One associate of Johnny's owes him some money. Jake (Ben Foster) is wild and violent and generally strung out, and his debt to Johnny eventually leads to really bad blood between them.
One day, Johnny sees Jake's little brother out walking, and as a lark he grabs the kid and puts him in his car. The brother, Zack, isn't worried; he rather enjoys hanging out with the older guys. After a day or two of partying with Johnny's crowd, Zack (Anton Yelchin) is actually having fun.
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The trouble is that Johnny doesn't know how to give the kid back.
Alpha Dog plays out over three days in sunny California, all glass houses and sparkly swimming pools carefully set in a moral, cultural and intellectual wasteland. Cinematographer Robert Fraisse gives the surroundings a dreamy quality.
Although the filmmaker, Nick Cassavetes, doesn't seem to be trying to provide the whys and wherefores of the case, he has created an unmistakable (if uneven) indictment of the lifestyle. Adults don't really figure in this story, and Johnny and his crowd seem guided in life only by money and MTV.
Meanwhile, at least one person involved in the real story behind Alpha Dog is currently awaiting trial. Attempts by various lawyers to stop this movie's release have been unsuccessful.
BOTTOM LINE: Hunter S. Thompson wrote about these people, and a generation later not much has changed. Expect a visceral response to this tale of follow-the-leader banality.
(This film is rated 14-A)