Truly Dreadful Film

The Worst Film Ever

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Texas-based filmmaker Kat Candler delivers a great dramatic story with excellent performances by her actors in her feature film 'Hellion', which is based off of her 2012 short film of the same name. I love when director's get the opportunity to tell their full story on screen from previous short, and 'Hellion' is sure to have audiences talking about it for days to come. Director Jeff Nichols, whose previous film was the award-winning 'Mud', served as executive producer for 'Hellion', which is fitting, because both feature a couple of young adolescent boys in serious adult situations. While some of 'Hellion's script has a few problems, it makes up for it ten-fold with its directing and acting.We meet 13-year old Jacob Wilson (Josh Wiggins), as he getting into some serious trouble with a group of friends and is caught by the police. The authorities tell him this is his last chance to be a better teenager before he is sentenced to a juvenile detention center. His father Hollis (Aaron Paul), feels like he has failed Jacob and his younger son Wes (Deke Garner) as well, due to the death of his wife, which has caused him to be emotionally and physically absent from his boy's lives. He spends his days either drinking or trying to fix up his beach house in Galveston so that he and his two sons can start over from scratch, but he never seems to get his act together, which is a trait that is passing down to young Jacob.Meanwhile, Hollis's sister Pam (Juliette Lewis), receives custody of Jacob and Wes due to Hollis's unavailability, which causes a strife between everyone. When Jacob is not getting into trouble with his dead-beat friends or looking after his brother, he is practicing for motor-cross race competition, which seems like the only thing he cares about. But underneath this hardened skin is a gentle soul who want his family back together and not a laughing stock of the small South-Eastern Texas town.What Candler does well here is capture these two boys and their father's unconditional love for one another, even though they don't wear it on their sleeve. And much like the iconic film 'Stand By Me', 'Hellion' shows a dark and beautiful coming-of-age story about brothers and friends sticking together no matter what obstacle comes their way. With all of these character's faults, you still root for them at their lowest points and at their highest points.However, there are a few instances in the script where momentum and tension is not being delivered or built, which causes some pacing problems. There is a violent climatic scene that doesn't pack the punch it needs to, because of how things are handled stylistically and editorially. And the buildup to this moment was almost non- existent.That being said, 'Hellion' delivers on a good story and its excellent performances. I'm sure we will see Josh Wiggins and Aaron Paul winning awards for this soon. And Candler proves she has an incredible eye for capturing the raw and realistic moments of a struggling family who wants a better life. The chemistry between Jacob and Wes is uncanny. This dark coming-of-age film is definitely worth seeing.

Retribution is a very difficult film to get into as it seems devoid of both point and purpose for almost its entire running time. It eventually boils down to a father losing custody of his youngest son due to his unruly behaviour and due to the behaviour of his oldest son Jacob.The big problem with this film is basically down to how it's actually been set up; this very thin story is about the failings of the father as a parent so therefore you would assume that most of the focus would be on the father himself, but the writers offer very little insight into Hollis as a character - it might have helped if the writers would have fleshed Hollis' character out more in order to make us understand his behaviour. It's mentioned that his wife has died and that he used to be a baseball star etc, but again these are just little threads that are mentioned, but I felt could have been expanded on more. It's very hard for me to get involved in a film when writers don't develop characters as I generally find that I won't care for a film if I'm given no reason to. The film also jumps around all over the place and just rambles on and on until eventually we get to the 'point' of the film about 10-15 minutes from the end. Aside from the father, the rest of the characters are rather one-note and shallow and as I've already mentioned this was a very hard film for me to care about.The film has a sub-plot involving his eldest son competing in a motor-cross competition which didn't really go anywhere and seemed kind of pointless. The only positive thing I can say about this film is that Aaron Paul was excellent and did everything he could with the material that he was given to work with. However that is the only good thing about this truly terrible film.

Hellion also known as Retribution is a slight tale from writer and director Kat Candler which has slow, unrushed placing.The film chronicles a family on the edge of destruction in rural Southeast Texas. Jacob Wilson (Josh Wiggins) likes heavy metal and loves motocross biking. He and his mates also get into vandalism and arson. Unfortunately for them, for every wrong move they make the police are immediately on to them.His father Hollis (Aaron Paul) is also broken. He his grieving over the loss of his wife, drinks too much and not spending enough time to look after his two children, their house is squalid. Hollis was a one time local baseball star. His actions also brings him to the attention of the police. The behaviour of both puts the younger son Wes at risk and into the hands of the child protection services who have him fostered out to his aunt Pam (Juliette Lewis.)Things take a turn for the worse when Jacob and his gang go to the aunt's house to visit Wes.The film has naturalistic performances from the child actors which is the big plus for the film. Everything is low key, fatalistic even. The only thing sunny here is the weather. The pacing is uneven as the film is a slow burner. There is too much contrivances, the police seem to be always there when there is trouble which is hard to swallow.There is irony to see Lewis being terrorised at the end of the movie from a gang of kids, after all she did her share of terrorising twenty years ago in films like Natural Born Killers.

First of all let me start by saying that I saw this movie at a theater downtown, so I was not at SXSW or Sundance, so I may have not had the same experience as others. But let me tell you this, this is fantastic. I loved every second of this film. it was exhilarating, emotional , and unpredictable. I swear, this movie will make you go through the most emotional ride you've been on all year. And the performance's are riveting. Aaron Paul, fresh off of breaking bad fame is absolutely excellent, his performance had so much emotion that, at points, made me tear up. And newcomer Josh Wiggins did a phenomenal job because he had a performance that felt so real and was at times heartbreaking to watch. And Juliette Lewis was great in her role as well. But the one thing that I like the most about this was the directing by Kat Candler, as she gave this movie a good sense of grit to it, and that's why I give this movie a 10/10. so that's my review of hellion!! now if you want to check out my review later today go to YouTube and look up ghostface3000100