ALPHA DOG Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Universal Pictures
Grade: B
Directed by: Nick Cassavetes
Written By: Nick Cassavetes
Cast: Ben Foster, Shawn Hatosy, Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin
Screened at: AMC Lincoln Sq., NYC, 1/9/07
Opens: January 12, 2007 Whenever I see a current movie located in California, I’m glad I live in New York. California looks like a dream one has while trying to sleep off a headache, a noir vision of an automobile riding an inch or so off the ground on a foggy night, the passengers all smoking weed or tobacco alternating with shots of cheap liquor. Nobody is walking. Everyone has wheels. No-one is over the age of thirty, nobody reads, everyone is hedonistic, parents are indifferent or clueless or concerned but helpless. A sad, sad sight. Then you wake up, the headache still there. Such is the scene of Nick Cassavetes’s “Alpha Dog,” based on a true story of a kidnapping gone wrong, and implicitly an indictment of a silly California law that states that kidnapping is subject to a penalty so severe (25 to life) that the perpetrators might as well kill the victims since the punishment for murder may not be any worse. While Cassavetes’s dramatization of the kidnapping takes too long to get to that very incident, once the kid is taken hostage–in an attempt to force his brother to cough up the princely sum of $1200 owed for drugs, as though the abductors thought you can get blood from a stone–“Alpha Dog” becomes an absorbing, if not exactly a riveting drama until its conclusion. Contrasting a fictional look with occasional mockumentary-style shots, Cassavetes hones in San Gabriel valley nihilistic youths whose idea of making the world a better place is simply hanging out, smoking dope, and partying, the girls game for fun as much as the guys. The de facto leader of the gang, or alpha dog, Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch), deals drugs, and chills with Frankie (Justin Timberlake), Elvis (Shawn Hatosy) and others. A party is cut short when the fiery Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster) announces that he cannot meet his $1,200 drug debt. When Jake’s folks (David Thornton, Sharon Stone) refuse to cover the amount, Johnny engineers the abduction of Jake’s fifteen-year-old half-brother Zack Mazursky (Anton Yelchin)–not an unwilling victim at all, as this goody-two-shoes wants to be initiated into the bad-boy culture--lose his virginity, and smoke some dope. You’ve got to wonder: if this kid were not a minor, would the stiff penalty facing the gang apply? Twenty-five to life for giving the kid exactly what he was looking for–an respite from his nagging parents; and introduction to the life he not only craved but truly loved while he was experiencing it and, what’s more, refused to run away when he had the chance and was even encouraged to do so by Frankie–with whom he developed a strong bond? The ensemble performances are convincing, with a surprising epilogue scene featuring a grief-stricken mom played by Sharon Stone in a fat suit. This is a crime story that could have been shaved by fifteen minutes had Cassavetes gone for the kidnapping early on. Rated R. 119 minutes 2007 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
