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DVD Brotherhood
 Run time: 76 min Rating: 6.4 Genres: Crime | Drama | Thriller Director: Will Canon Writers: Will Canon, Doug Simon Stars: Trevor Morgan, Lou Taylor Pucci, Arlen Escarpeta |
| Storyline Adam Buckley finds himself in the middle of a convenience store robbery during his last night as a pledge for a college fraternity. When the initiation ritual goes horribly wrong, and every move proves disastrous, Adam is forced to confront a new challenge all together, and he has to take a stand. Written by Anonymous |
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| Plot Keywords: robbery, convenience store, fraternity, caught having sex, raised middle finger | |
| Details: Country: USA Release Date: 14 January 2011 (UK) |
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One doesn't need a PhD to predict negative consequences when some college frat boys pressurize a fraternity applicant to carry out a convenience store robbery as part of their induction process. Needless to say, the hold-up is less than a complete success, and "Brotherhood" finds itself in similar territory to "Very Bad Things" as the fall-out from this reckless prank spirals disastrously out of control during the course of a long night. Each proposed remedy pushes a bad situation further into the catastrophe zone, and the bonds of this intelligence-challenged brotherhood soon start disintegrating under the strain of the situation. The growing crisis is laced with moments of high tension and dark comedy, but unfortunately any audience sympathy for these unpleasant frat boys is diluted by their misogyny, racism, selfishness and stupidity. The film boasts some excellent cinematography and solid acting performances from the cast, but its principal drawback is the relentless frenzied tempo combined with a lack of variation in emotional pitch – a roller-coaster ride in a perpetual state of near-hysteria eventually becomes somewhat exhausting.
As a depiction of the absurdity of fraternity life and the misguided "brotherhood" that often dominates the thinking of fraternity members, this film paints a grim picture of the multiple ways that hazing can go wrong. What begins as an absolutely ridiculous prank leads to an unlikely series of poor judgments and unfortunate events—arrogance and racism seem to be the principles that guide the fraternity members' sense of "brotherhood." One of the brothers (whose name I couldn't tell you, since the characters are all so flat and indistinct) actually has a sense of morality and fights his peers in an effort to do the right thing, but he is—of course—over-ruled. The story is mildly engaging, and numerous conflicts develop throughout the course of the film, but the distinguishing features of this film are desperation and an overabundance of fraternity guys shouting at each other in anger and fear. A more experienced and skilled screenwriter could have turned this raw story into something quite good.
The film "Brotherhood" is actually a litmus test for your ability to connect with today's college experience. If you are in touch with today's typical college fraternity/sorority lifestyle, you will likely think this film is excellent. If you are mostly out of touch, you will not likely connect to this film. Originally I rated this film 8 out of ten, but I changed it to 9 out of 10, simply because of the performances given by this film's rising stars, but I will get into that later.
If you consider yourself "middle of the road" when it comes to understanding college social scenes, see how you feel about this movie – it may help you decide how well you understand college life today, if you were asked this same question.
From what I can tell, the story is indeed fictional but based on real experiences and 'folk lore' or 'urban legends' of college life. Although I am not going to go into specific plot details, it is generally well-crafted and fun to watch.
From my previous movie reviews, I have a keen eye for performance. What stood out to me was the girl that came looking for her 'personal belongings' halfway through the story. At first glance, I was sure I had seen her in other movies, but I couldn't recall where. My trusty IMDb iphone app identified her to be Jennifer Sipes. This actress made the movie for me. If you do get a chance to see this film in theaters, her performance alone is worth the price of admission. There is something that really shines bright with her. Lou Taylor Pucci also does a very very good job. I was lucky enough to see "The Music Never Stopped" at Sundance and I think his performance in Brotherhood is at the same level. Jon Foster comes through as well, although his strength as an actor did not shine as bright as Jennifer Sipes and Lou Taylor Pucci. I don't blame Jon Foster, this is a small indie film, and he sometimes stumbles a little with delivery, slightly depreciating his performance, but I suspect this was due to a very compacted shooting schedule. I eagerly anticipate Jon's future performances in big budget studio films, because I think with a proper shooting schedule, he will really take off. Trevor Morgan to me was just OK. Unfortunately I could see him 'acting' at certain points. If you see this film on the big screen, you will see Pucci dominate Morgan in scenes that the two are in (from a purely acting perspective). Once again, I think Trevor Morgan had a tough job in this film, thus making it more difficult to perform with a short shooting cycle. Nonetheless, he is responsible for his screen presence, and he didn't meet my expectations. The scenes that Trevor Morgan and Arlen Escarpeta square off are the slowest of the film, and in my opinion, should be left out. It simply doesn't work as intended.
In summary, I would recommend this film. It rides along at a fast pace, comparable to a typical 'night-gone-wrong' thriller. Overall performances are good, but look for Lou Taylor Pucci and even more so Jennifer Sipes – Two actors with a very bright future. Jon Foster is close behind, and also has a big career ahead of him. I will give fair warning that you may find this film really, really, irritating if you are not connected to college life today, but if you are, you will associate well to the language, the pranks/initiations, and the race relations, all realistic and decently put together. What really separates this film from other indies in this genre is the acting. If for nothing else, see it for some inspiring performances by Hollywood's future stars.
I've always found the extreme American fraternity rules sickening, and this premise is taken to the extreme here. The film is about fraternity ideas gone all wrong, and the following bad choices made. Well, is this what happens when police is your worst "enemy"?
A fraternity idea of making fake robberies of gas stations goes wrong when they go to the wrong gas station. There's a shootout, and much more I'm not willing to say.
Directed by Will Canon, the film sets up an interesting premise, and quite effective acting by the youngsters, though the whole are put to some kind of extreme, it's interesting and exciting to watch. It forces you to participate and gets you occupied. Of course it's far fetched, and there's so many insane decisions, but still it makes out an interesting premise, when bad leadership and idiots mix up.
It's a film high on tension and action, and there's a nest fun coming up all the time. It's not a pleasant watch, by no means. Rather unpleasant in all ways, but it keeps you seated. Forget the believability, just be along for the ride! Talented film making from those involved.