Drunktown's Finest movie review (2015)

These characters, of course, are connected in alternately arbitrary and inescapable ways. Sick Boy's sister is preparing for a puberty ceremony, which is to be performed by Felixia's grandfather. Felixia meets Sick Boy at a store, takes him to a party, and, during a drunken moment, makes sure his hand finds its way between her legs before their kissing goes any further. There really is only one option available as to the question of Nizhoni's ancestry.

Freeland's screenplay mixes tradition with superstition (a dead owl, one character notes, means death is coming), overt foreshadowing of problems to come with omens of impending doom (Nizhoni experiences déjà vu at the sight of a dead horse adorned with red handprints), and clunky expository dialogue establishing a heap of trouble for these characters. The last point is particularly true for Sick Boy, who is arrested twice, gets into two fights, nearly becomes involved in an armed robbery, and ends up with a man seeking revenge against him. It's a clutter of half-realized ideas and fully calculated melodrama.

The performances here are generally unrefined, with most of the actors—including Wilson and Moore—barely going beyond rote line readings (Bitsui holds his own, although his character also has the heftiest load of conflicts with which to deal). There's a certain quality of unforced, naturalistic charm to the performances at first (some of Freeland's most egregiously explanatory dialogue would sound unnatural from even more experienced actors), but they become almost burdensome as the movie thickly lays on the conflicts.

The movie works in its quieter, less busy moments, especially during its domestic scenes. There's a genuine sense of familial and cultural history when Freeland forgoes any of the story's explicit obstacles and simply observes these characters going about their everyday lives. We get a glimpse of sincere conflict in a scene between Sick Boy and his wife, who admits that she's relieved by the idea of her husband joining the Army, if only because it will mean "one less child" for whom she'll have to care.

Despite the movie's shortcomings, Freeland shows plenty of promise behind the camera. In those softer scenes, she shows a good deal of patience with and for her characters, and she displays an efficient eye for capturing these locales (complemented by Peter Holland's fine cinematography). "Drunktown's Finest" shows a filmmaker struggling to find her voice. It's a whisper here, but we can hear it.

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