On DVD: Alpha Dog

Directed By Nick Cassavetes

Starring Emile Hirsh, Justin Timberlake

When Alpha Dog hit theaters I heard mixed reviews on it but my curiosity was still peaked.  I never made it to the theater to see the film so I'm happy to check it out now.

The Movie

Alpha Dog is based on the true story of a teenage drug lord in South California whose empire comes crashing down after a murder in 1999.  The film is wrapped in a documentary style package with interviews with the parents of the drug lord (Bruce Willis) and the murdered teen (Sharon Stone).  There are also title cards giving dates and locations throughout the film.

With this film it appears that Cassavetes is trying to engulf the audience into the world of the teens that are a part of Johnny Truelove's (Hirsh) circle of dealers and hangers-on.  They party, watch rap videos, and have sex.  For a good part of the film it feels like nothing important to the plot actually happens and maybe that's effective because this rinse and repeat of partying and sex is the life these people led until the murder.

Things go awry when one of Truelove's dealers doesn't pay the money he owes.  He gets humiliated and eventually comes back with friends and trashes Truelove's house.  Truelove goes searching for him and finds the dealer's little brother Zack instead, who he promptly kidnaps. 

Zack actually charms Truelove's friends and enjoys being with them.  When he's given the option to leave, he decides to stay explaining that he's doing it for his brother when in reality he's doing it because he's having a good time being kidnapped.  Feeling backed into a corner Truelove orders Zack's murder.

The big problem is that the entire film is made up of lowlifes that are impossible to sympathize with.  Sure Zack is an innocent at first but because he hates the idea of going home to his family he makes a decision that ends up being fatal.  It's hard to say that I "enjoyed" this film because there's nothing enjoyable about it.  A film like this done right can be moving or compelling but there's no one here that is compelling.  I found myself wishing the movie was about Truelove's father (Willis) as he is the best actor in the film even though his role is little more than a cameo.  Sharon Stone does a fair enough job as Zack's distraught mother until the overly long interview scene at the end with Stone in the fat suit.  That scene jumped the shark for me.

Alpha Dog does have a redeeming quality in that Cassavetes really designs this world that the teens live in and it feels real.  The problem is his attention to the world the teens live in comes at the suffering of the events that actually surround the murder which feel like a made for TV film.  This story should have been compelling but the characters just aren't given enough depth or back-story.  I know they are probably pretty shallow people in real life, but there's something behind a person that makes him a drug dealer and a murderer and that's what needed to be included in this film.

6/10

The Video

The widescreen presentation features good color and detail with grain only being really an issue in darker scenes in which the grain makes the scenes a bit murky.  Skin tones look great and detail in brighter scenes is fairly solid.

7.5/10

The Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is clean and crisp with dialogue, score, and sound effects being distortion free and well balanced.  Music really kicks in the soundstage a bit but overall the surround mix was just basic at best.

7/10

Packaging and Bonus Features

Alpha Dog is a single disc release presented inside a standard amaray case.  Cover art is pretty standard floating head "look that guy is in the movie so you have to see it" stuff that I'm not the biggest fan of.

There's not a lot in the way of bonus features on the disc.  A Cautionary Tale: The Making of Alpha Dog is a brief (just over 10 minutes) EPK style featurette with sound bites from the cast about how good the script was and why they decided to do the film.  There's almost no depth in this brief featurette.

Witness Timeline is a group of testimony clips against the real person upon which the film is based.

4/10

Alpha Dog ends up being an OK film, not horrible, but not great either.  If you know about the story upon which the film is based you might have some interest in seeing the film.

Overall (Not an Average) 5.5/10

The Movie 6/10

The Video 7.5/10

The Audio 7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 4/10

Overall (Not an Average) 5.5/10

-Stephen Lackey