Movie Reviews: Campaign for justice after brutal abuse at the hands of his foster parents
Courtroom drama Foster Boy aims to reconcile two distinct ambitions: to bring to light the deliberately callous (and very profitable) neglect practised by some private fostering companies, and a more conventionally cinematic account of polar opposites who find common ground.
The deeply traumatised Jamal Randolph (Shane Paul McGhie) is the (15A) at the heart of Youssef Delara’s latest film. A recidivist small-time criminal who expresses himself through rap verse, 19-year-old Jamal is pigeon-holed as ‘a thug’ by high-powered corporate lawyer Michael Trainor (Matthew Modine) when a judge forces Michael to take on Jamal’s latest case. For once, however, Jamal is the plaintiff: he is suing Belcore, a company that provides fostering services, for $20 million as compensation for the neglect that led to Jamal experiencing brutal abuse at the hands of his foster parents. ‘It’s always about the money,’ Michael observes, but soon he learns that Jamal isn’t interested in being bought off: Jamal wants justice, and for the world to look a little more closely at what the privatisation of the fostering service means for the children who find themselves living a nightmare.
Written by Jay Paul Deratany, who is a Chicago-based human rights lawyer who worked on cases similar to the one described here, this courtroom drama aims to reconcile two distinct ambitions: to bring to light the deliberately callous (and very profitable) neglect practised by some private fostering companies, and a more conventionally cinematic account of polar opposites who find common ground. Described as ‘a white snob’, Trainor is at best unconsciously racist in his initial dealings with Jamal; for his part, Jamal derides Trainor as ‘three-piece’ for the expensive suit he wears, and assumes that Trainor is just another brick in the vast wall of white privilege. The film achieves its aims, largely because Matthew Modine and Shane Paul McGhie develop an excellent chemistry, but the twin plotlines don’t dovetail as neatly as we might have hoped — no amount of mutual understanding, or schmaltzy appeals to the principles of the American Constitution, can mitigate Jamal’s harrowing experience. (internet release)
It’s a good week for Matthew Modine, who also stars in (18s), playing Scott, the father of Jen (Charlotte Vega), who goes missing whilst hiking the Appalachian Trail. When Scott arrives in the remote town of Wreham, from where Jen last called him, the story flashes back six weeks, to when Jen and her hipster friends wander off the trail to search for an old Civil War fort and find themselves at the mercy of the Foundation, an inbred, mountain-dwelling collective pledged to maintaining ‘a Blessed and Ideal America'.
Mike P Nelson’s horror-thriller is effectively one long homage to John Boorman’s Deliverance, as Jen and her friends find themselves attacked and picked off by skull-wearing savages who flit effortlessly through the dense forest, although it’s also notable that the New York sophisticates very quickly revert to savagery themselves as they attempt to circle the wagons. The Foundation might easily be imagined as Native American hold-outs resisting White settlers, or a modern ‘America First’ militia retreating to their stronghold for one last stand, but whatever satiric commentary Mike Nelson intends is largely lost in a welter of brutal encounters, each one more vicious and gory than the last. (internet release)
What more can be said about (PG), arguably the greatest footballer of all time? Fans of the beautiful game will find much that is familiar in this Netflix documentary from Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn, which focuses on the 12-year period between 1958, when Pelé won his first World Cup as a 17-year-old, and 1970, when he and Brazil retired the Jules Rimet trophy by winning the World Cup for the third time. But while the best-known moments are ingrained in every football fan’s imagination (the audacious flick over the Swedish defender before rattling in a goal in the World Cup final — at 17!), Nicholas and Tryhorn have also unearthed footage that hasn’t been aired as frequently, most of it from Pelé’s record-breaking exploits with his Brazilian club, Santos.
It can be difficult to separate the myth from the man — and even former teammates, such as Jairzinho, Rivelino and Zagallo, tend to reach for the superlatives when describing Pelé’s ability — but the stark evidence of the black-and-white footage is that of a footballer who seemed possessed of phenomenal balance, power, awareness and intelligence. Equally interesting is Pelé as metaphor, acclaimed here as the personification of a belated Brazilian self-confidence on the international stage, which arrived via the secular religion of o joga bonito. But it’s as a result of his elevation to Brazilian folk-hero that Pelé is frequently criticised in his native country: given his status, some contributors argue, he could have done more to protest against the dictatorship that came to power in 1964. Interesting, if unanswerable, questions: this film’s real strength is watching a man striving to match his own legend, and then surpassing it. (Netflix)
