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| Images courtesy of MVD Marquee Collection |
Smodcastle Cinema, it helps to know, is filmmaker and
producer Kevin Smith’s childhood movie theater he grew up in. Now the official New Jersey movie theater
owner of the building, showcasing movies that appeal to Smith’s brand of
slacker coming-of-age comedies and independently financed pictures made outside
of the studio system, Kevin Smith’s Smodcastle Cinema is something of an
analogue to his podcast (or Smodcast) of the same name. Anyway, sometime in 2022 the theater went up
for sale so naturally Kevin Smith swooped in and purchased the venue outright
and soon set up Smodcastle Cinema as a place to not only show films but to make
them there as well. Such was the case
with his The 4:30 Movie which prominently featured scenes in the
theater. But over time, Smith hopes to
use the venue as a hotspot to book hard-to-find or obtain films including ones
from his own library as a director and/or as a producer.
Such is the case with what is shaping up to be one of
Smodcastle Cinema’s first standalone boutique label blu-ray releases in
conjunction with the MVD Marquee Collection with writer-director Vincent Pereira’s
scrappy gritty 1997 teen violence drama A Better Place. A View Askew production originally with Smith
as executive producer, it sits nicely alongside such galvanizing youth dramas
as Kids, The Living End, Mean Creek or even Bully
in its depiction of juvenile delinquency and broken homes leading towards
preteen bullying or retaliatory violence.
Though grimy, the film received something of a makeover with Kevin Smith’s
new Smodcastle Cinema boutique label, receiving a 3K scan from the original camera
negative and first generation print elements as well as being framed in the
unique aspect ration of 1.50:1 alongside a newly created 5.1 surround sound mix. While plainly regional and even a bit
amateurish at times, this rough little number packed a real iron fisted punch
in depicting a young man with tragedy in his blood seeking refuge for a better
life elsewhere only to find himself even worse off than how he started.
Barret Michaelson (Robert DiPatri) is having a difficult
start at his new neighborhood and school.
Still coping with the tragic rooftop fall that killed his father, he’s
immediately targeted by bullies and rejected by other potential
friendships. One day while taking a
beating in the locker room, he finds solace in the form of neighborhood loner
Ryan Walker (Eion Bailey from Fight Club) a troubled misanthropic outcast
stigmatized by his father’s double murder-suicide of his wife and himself. Living with his mother’s sister who holds his
father and therefore also him accountable for her death, Ryan gets a steady
dose of negativity and disdain from his legal parental guardian. A friendship is struck but over time Barret
starts making other friendships too who don’t mesh with Ryan’s misanthropy
which grows increasingly erratic and sociopathic as time goes on. Enraged Barret is making friends with his
sworn enemies, Ryan tries to drag Barret down with him in a vicious and
eventually murderous cycle of violence that threatens to destroy whatever hopes
of a happier life he has left.
Bleak and foreboding with gritty scratchy and grainy looking
photography by Ian Dudley and an unnerving ambient score by Mikael Jorgensen
and Thomas Andrew Misner, A Better Place while regional and practically
shoestring no budget gets the job done as far as conveying gritty urban decay
out in the open and within the households of these kids born into worlds of
violence and/or domination. Take for instance
another subplot involving a bully Ryan stands up to. The kid’s nose is broken and the moment he
gets into the car with his dad, the angry parent promptly reopens the nose
wound and berates him. In between these
scenes we see Ryan on the receiving end of endless verbal and psychological
abuses from his aunt and her boyfriend played by Kevin Smith regular Jason
Lee. For those who are really looking, Mallrats
player Ethan Suplee also shows up unexpectedly.
Vincent Periera does everything from writing, directing,
producing and editing the picture though his two young leads Eion Bailey and
Robert DiPatri also bring an unexpected amount of talent to the screen. Eion Bailey, like a young James Dean or even
a Brad Renfro type, exudes youthful depression, anger and eventually sociopathy. A big part of the film’s horror is Robert
DiPatri knowing how dangerous and into deep shit Ryan is capable of dragging
him into but he feels compelled as a fellow human being to intervene
anyway. The film puts you into Barret’s
shoes as he fends off bullies, makes new friendships and finds it all in jeopardy
at the hands of this ticking time bomb of youthful anger and rage. As a watch, A Better Place is
difficult if not a little draining but as an uncompromising portrait of
troubled youngsters drifting towards some form of oblivion it left a real
impression. Not every Kevin Smith
affiliated production has to be funny or cheerful. Proof positive he dabbled in some things that
could be taken seriously too.
--Andrew Kotwicki
