Knock ‘Em Dead, Kid
by Warren Curry
4/18/10
The story at the center of “Knock ‘Em Dead, Kid” is a familiar one. A decent kid, on the verge of moving on to bigger and better things, finds trouble constantly nipping at his heels. And whether or not he’ll be able to escape the impending doom provides the film’s dramatic question. Considering the movie is set in the world of volatile teenagers, possesses a crime element and is ultimately a morality tale, a comparison to Larry Clark’s work is logical.
Christopher L. Golon’s debut is saddled with many of the problems you’d expect from a feature film (shot on digital video) produced on a less than $3000 budget. Technical flaws — from the sound to the editing — abound and the acting is very much of the novice variety, but you needn’t look too hard past these issues to see and feel Golon’s passion. While his lack of experience as a director is obvious, as a screenwriter he displays a firm grip on his material. Viewed more as a filmmaking exercise than a fully formed feature, “Knock ‘Em Dead, Kid” shows Golon clearly has potential as a writer.
The decent kid mentioned in the opening paragraph is Bret (Dirk Julian), a 19-year-old who just needs to survive one more summer in his Connecticut hometown before he can start attending New York University. The first of his life’s obstacles are his two best friends, the hyper aggressive Will (Michael Resendez) and slacker Jim (Chad Post), who essentially present different bad sides of the same coin. In an early scene, we watch the trio, faces hidden by masks, beat another teenager named Teddy (Adam Gordon) senseless, an act ostensibly carried out in the name of revenge.
Another obstacle comes in the form of Trish (Erin Prieto), an enticing girl a few years Bret’s junior. This temptation threatens to derail Bret’s relationship with his long time girlfriend, Veronica (Torey Marks). Sexual temptation offered to a 19-year-old male typically leads to unwise decision making, and Bret proves to be no exception to the rule. As the summer nears its end, the police investigation into Teddy’s beating closes in on Bret and his friends.
Deficiencies that arise from lack of budget can, of course, be overlooked, but Golon doesn’t display obvious instincts as a director. The alternating shots of Bret and Trish speaking when they first meet don’t come close to matching and the occasional random visual flourishes, such as when Bret’s stroll across a parking lot is fragmented with jump cuts, don’t serve much of a purpose. The film’s low points are two excruciatingly lengthy scenes, the first involves an encounter with Jim’s drunken father and the second a traffic stop that sparks a riot, which should not have made it to the final cut in their current shape.
This also brings up another glaring problem — Golon, like many filmmakers working with minimal funds, doesn’t tailor his production to correspond with his small budget. The riot scene looks preposterous because only a scant few extras actually appear in the shots. And Golon lays quite a burden on his non-pro actors, asking them to carry dialogue heavy scenes they lack the ability to convincingly pull off. Also, several establishing shots of a hazy, smoggy skyline unmistakably look like Los Angeles…which wouldn’t be a problem if the film wasn’t set in Connecticut. Golon isn’t the first filmmaker guilty of having ambitions too big for his means, and I can’t help but feel the end result would be far superior had he made a short film instead.
But a component of most good art is passion, and Golon’s film certainly doesn’t suffer in that department. He also has a strong grasp of character, and though the path Bret treads is hardly an original one, it’s still affecting. Dirk Julian lacks the charisma and range necessary to make Bret wholly absorbing — he’s too much of a blank slate throughout — but doesn’t do anything to make the flawed kid completely off-putting either.
As stated earlier, “Knock ‘Em Dead, Kid” should be thought of as a filmmaking exercise or a trial run. With more experience and a better understanding of how far he can reasonably stretch his budget, an impressive film from Golon will likely be on the way.
contact: wcurry718@yahoo.com
Knock Em Dead, Kid (US/2009)
Director: Christopher L. Golon
Cast: Dirk Julian, Michael Resendez, Torey Marks, Erin Prieto, Chad Post
Not rated, 71 minutes