Tsotsi (2005)

Summary: When a young thug and leader of a small gang (Presley Chweneyagae), carjacks a woman and discovers her baby in the back seat, he decides to reform his life and raise the boy himself.

As much as I love movie trailers, sometimes they can really get in the way of things. This movie was great, but I had this slight problem. I could clearly remember one shot from trailer that kind of sucked all tension out of the movie for me. Had it not been so, though, than I would spend the rest of this review discussing how many layers of tension writer-director Gavin Hood weaves into such richly simple set pieces and sparse dialogue.

Perhaps what is most astonishing about Hood's direction is the stark performance he brings out in newcomer Chweneyagae. Chweneyagae makes Tsotsi so hard and unforgiving that it's easy to forget how young he is - younger than even yours truly. Yet he remains remarkably vulnerable, subtle, and, above all, sympathetic.

This film only has one strike against it. I have a hard time with movies that kill an animal or child just to advance the plot. I'm not talking Ordinary People-the-kid's-dead-and-that's-the-point killing a child or an animal; I'm talking about the Syriana-style lazy-writing-don't-know-how-do-this-otherwise. I'm not going to tell you which goes down here. It was painful to watch and wholly necessary.

Otherwise, compelling drama worth checking out. A-