Mean Creek (2004)

Premise: After George (Josh Peck) beats up Sam (Rory Caulkin), Sam's older brother, Rocky (Trevor Morgan) plans with his friends Marty (Scott Mechlowicz) and Clyde (Ryan Kelley) to humiliate George, so he can know what it feels like to be bullied. Sam invites his friend, Millie (Carly Schroeder), along, and the six of them head out on a boat trip down a quiet river on a Saturday afternoon.

So, I'm not going to lie: I went to see this movie because it's Caulkin's latest. Call it what you will, but that kid can act. As I have mentioned in the past, he has a preternatural talent that is alternately uplifting and bone-chilling. As a child he was best described as precocious, but, now that he's a teenager, it's so much more.

I got a lot more than I bargained for with this film.

Have you ever watched a film that made you pull at your hair it was so intense? I don't think I could find a better word to describe this experience than intense. It was funny, it was sweet, it was terrifying, it was sickening. It was everything you expect from a winter movie, only you were blessed to find it in the summer heat.

The power of this ensemble cast was what really took me by storm. Each of the kids I knew from somewhere or other, but I didn't really think of about any of them outside of Caulkin.

Peck played the best drawn bully I have seen to date. He never suffered from the magic that bullies seem to fall under in films. He never repented, and he never relented. His sweetness could turn on a dime, and you never saw it coming. He was a one man thunder cloud.

Morgan, in addition to being near jail-bait, Mechlowicz, and Kelley brought definition, warmth, and darkness to a trio of teenage boys in a small Oregon town. Their closeness was compelling, but it was the flaws in their individual natures that ripped your heart out.

Schroeder was the key to this whole abyss of emotion and power. Her platinum hair and pale good looks that would soon fade into teenage beauty possessed a certain sorrow in their boldness. She was sweet, naive, and dangerous.

I feel like I couldn't congratulate Jacob Aaron Estes (writer/director) enough for his sophomore offering. He never fell prey to stereotypes, and he kept the plot going long after a weaker author would have headed for the hills. What was truly remarkable as a writer and a director was that he gave each of his cast members a chance to shine when so many others would have forced the responsibility on one and wasted the rest.

Perhaps his genius lies in his ability to recognize that in his cast and in his characters.