Fierce People (2006)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Nicki M

  
  I purchased this from Amazon for something ridiculous like $3 as part of a buy one get other two cheap deal. It wasn't a movie I had heard of or expected much from, but I figured it was pretty cheap and had a younger Kristen Stewart in it, so I would give it the benefit of the… More
  I purchased this from Amazon for something ridiculous like $3 as part of a buy one get other two cheap deal. It wasn't a movie I had heard of or expected much from, but I figured it was pretty cheap and had a younger Kristen Stewart in it, so I would give it the benefit of the doubt and just sell it on if i wasn't impressed. (And I expected not to be). What a pleasant surprise! This was a really quirky little low budget film - highly original and dealt with a topic I have never seen dealt with in a movie before (I won't say what and spoil it). You see this particular situation in movies with girls all the time, but not boys. It was very well done. This was really a unique film in that it is funny and serious and sad and surreal all at the same time. I have never seen anything else like it. Anton Yelchin is very good here, as is Kristin in a smaller role. Definitely one to check out if you like unusual films!

• Tim S

  
  Intensely stupid movie that I caught on Sundance (they constantly make me question why I still keep them on my cable package, but then they show a Cassavettes marathon and I renew them). I can't believe that talented actors like Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland read this script… More
  Intensely stupid movie that I caught on Sundance (they constantly make me question why I still keep them on my cable package, but then they show a Cassavettes marathon and I renew them). I can't believe that talented actors like Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland read this script and think it can work (I was wondering if they owed Griffin Dunne something or just thought he was a nice guy). The movie starts out OK (exposition in dialogue is becoming a curse in film today), but then in the middle becomes a mind fuck of a movie with absolutely retarded twists (some of which you see coming a mile away). I am just glad I fell asleep towards the end and awoke to know exactly how this thing would end. Waste of talent all the way around. This is why people should stop smoking weed when they think it's making them a better writer.

• Leigh R

  
  Subject matter turned very heavy about halfway into the film, but ends very nicely. I liked it...

• Red L

  
  Are the customs of a rich family like those of a primitive South American band of natives? That is the premise of this movie. There are those in the rich family who stop at nothing to protect their interests. The movie is better than most these days.

• jay n

  
  good cast, mediocre film

• William D

  
  [size=3]"Fierce People" is a remarkably moving, enjoyable, unique and powerful film. It takes on tough subject matter that others would shy away from, yet it also has a great sense of humor. It is one of the best films of the year and should be a major contender for Best… More
  [size=3]"Fierce People" is a remarkably moving, enjoyable, unique and powerful film. It takes on tough subject matter that others would shy away from, yet it also has a great sense of humor. It is one of the best films of the year and should be a major contender for Best Picture.[/size] [size=3][img]http://www.ioberon.cz/img/rec/fierce-people-dvd-1.jpg[/img][/size] [size=3][b]Griffin Dunne[/b] does a smashing job as director, working with a screenplay from [b]Dirk Wittenborn[/b]. The film introduces us to a working-class single mother and her amazing teenage son. The two are life partners of a kind, each battling loneliness and other typical problems. The mother has developed a drug addiction but has not lost her soul or her love for her son. The boy is struggling to stay balanced in the midst of his mother's drug addiction and his ever-growing feelings of abandonment with regard to the father he has never met.[/size] [size=3][img]http://www.vh1.com/sitewide/flipbooks/img/movies/production_stills/f/fierce_people/14_300dpi.jpg[/img][/size] [size=3]The father is a world-renowned anthropologist, best known for his study of a South American tribe: the eponymous fierce people. The boy, beautifully played by [b]Anton Yelchin[/b] (whose giant eyes and almost spiritual acting instincts first caught my attention in "Alpha Dog"), spends a lot of time cloistered in his room watching 8mm films about his father and his work in South America. They are documentaries made in a dispassionate 1950s scholastic style, yet the subject matter is quite dark, given the ferocity of the Indian tribe.[/size] [size=3]It's very sad and tender watching this tall, gangly boy all by himself watching films of his father. All the boy has of the father he so longs to know are these flickering images in the darkness. He stares at his father on the screen, watching him play with the children of the fierce people, who get more attention than his own son does. But the boy is more melancholy than bitter. He seems bewildered by the fact that he's been abandoned. He seems to know that he didn't deserve it. Adult irresponsibility more puzzles him than embitters him. His forgiving eyes seem to say, I know you've done the best you could.[/size] [size=3][img]http://parcom.pro-networks.org/images/1016fp.JPG[/img][/size] [size=3]The boy doesn't just watch his father in the films, however. He also watches the fierce people. He has learned quite a lot about them and about anthropology in general. This will come in handy when his life takes a dramatic detour, bringing him into contact with a new tribe: the American super-rich.[/size] [size=3]After a crisis in the family, the boy's mother decides to detox on the remote compound of a cooky but lovable billionaire played by [b]Donald Sutherland[/b], with whom she has been distantly acquainted for years after she met him when she was a sort of candy striper in a hospital. During the summer, the boy performs a quasi-anthropological study of this clan. He also seeks solace and guidance from the philosophies of the fierce people when he runs into trouble. The Indian tribe becomes a sort of collective spiritual mentor for him. [/size] [size=3]When we meet the billionaire's clan, humor is the order of the day. It is positively delightful meeting the family members, especially the billionaire's daughter, played hilariously but also sadly by [b]Elizabeth Perkins[/b]. (Why do we get to see this fantastic actress so seldom?!) I loved the film's bittersweet approach to humor. Even at its most zany, the film never loses sight of the struggles people face trying to find their way. Almost all the humor has a tragic undertone.[/size] [size=3][img]http://www.vh1.com/sitewide/flipbooks/img/movies/production_stills/f/fierce_people/15_300dpi.jpg[/img][/size] [size=3]Just when everything seems to be going swimmingly and the boy seems poised to join the clan (he is wooed passionately and tenderly by Sutherland's grand-daughter, played by a great young actress I've never seen before, [b]Kristen Stewart[/b]), something unspeakably awful happens to him. I won't give away the details, because much of the power lies in the shock it delivers to the audience. But I will say that it's one of the few things that American society is still uncomfortable talking about. This is one taboo we're still so afraid of that we can't speak about it, even on trash TV. I'm immensely impressed with the film's courage in delving into it, because it's a big part of how men make war with each other on a deeply personal level.[/size] [size=3][img]http://www.ioberon.cz/img/rec/fierce-people-dvd-2.jpg[/img][/size] [size=3]In addition to shocking, it was also profoundly dramatic. I was really at a loss when trying to contemplate how any boy or man would deal with this. The dilemma was so great that it bordered on the Shakespearean. It also raised fascinating, troubling questions about class stratification, another phenomenon of human life that Americans are still uncomfortable talking about. The boy turns to the guidance of the fierce people, and what an eye-opening journey it turns out to be, not just for him, but for all the characters. [/size][size=3]Watching this courageous boy stand up for himself and win back his "animal spirit" was exhilarating.[/size] [size=3]I struggled with how to rate the film. I wanted to give it a 9, but I feel a 9 must be given only to films that achieve a high level of complexity or artistic innovation. "Fierce People," while fantastic and engaging, was not that complex. It's a straightforward story, completely obeying the conventions of standard film narrative. I can't give it a 9, but consider my 8 to be 8 and nine-tenths. [/size] [size=3]I save the 10 rating, it should be noted, only for films I consider masterpieces. Obviously there aren't many masterpieces produced, thus I've only given out one or two 10's in the past couple years. I've also given out only a handful of nines. This year so far, I've given out about a dozen eights, and at the top of that list is "Fierce People."[/size]

• Mark A

  
  A mildly interesting look at how a kid who has nothing to call his own would respond when thrown into a situation where he is surrounded by people who are incredibly wealthy. Liz Earl (Diane Ladd) is a massage therapist who is struggling to keep it together when circumstances force… More
  A mildly interesting look at how a kid who has nothing to call his own would respond when thrown into a situation where he is surrounded by people who are incredibly wealthy. Liz Earl (Diane Ladd) is a massage therapist who is struggling to keep it together when circumstances force her to seek refuge with the incredibly wealthy Ogden Osborne (Donald Sutherland), a man she once treated when he was hospitalized. Her son, Finn (Anton Yelchin), meets and becomes friends with Ogden's granddaughter, Maya (Kristen Stewart). The film was good at setting up the premise, and developing the relationship between the two teenagers, but the film seemed to lose its way part way through. Instead of a gentle coming of age story about two people from completely different backgrounds, it became a dark, psychological thriller with patricide and sexual deviancy and a host of other twists that left this viewer somewhat bewildered. The unifying thread is the performance of Anton Yelchin. Without him, this could have been an unbearable mess. However, given the cast, including Elizabeth Perkins as Maya's mother, this film should have had a whole lot more going for it. The fierce people of the title may refer to this "tribe" of the super-wealthy, or it may only be a reference to the tribe that Finn's absent father studies in South America, but as a film, this was a disappointment.

• William G

  
  Peculiar dramedy takes uneasy turn at its midpoint.

• Nick G

  
  If you had told me beforehand I'd include it in the same sentence as 'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' or 'The Chumscrubber', I'd have laughed and said that was unlikely. But this deserves to be on that short list of dark, quirky, and emotionally… More
  If you had told me beforehand I'd include it in the same sentence as 'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' or 'The Chumscrubber', I'd have laughed and said that was unlikely. But this deserves to be on that short list of dark, quirky, and emotionally moving independent films. The movie surrounds Finn (Yelchin) who has to stay home from a South American summer vacation where he was to meet his anthropologist/explorer father for the first time. This is after he is caught with cocaine for his drug addicted and alcoholic mother (Lane), and circumstances have them staying in a guest house at the wealthy sprawling NJ estate of businessman Osborne (Sutherland). While there he falls in love with the billionaire's granddaughter (Stewart), becomes friends with his grandson (Evans), and a number of other sometimes rich and sometimes off-kilter characters. There are dark themes and serious contexts (wealth/class issues, human nature issues) present throughout, with spats of dark humour the first half of the film. The second half hits you like a brick wall, and was one of the most shocking and unexpected turns I've enountered in any film, and all but completely abandons the lighter side and humour found in the first hour. I always wondered where Yelchin came from, and now I know. This is clearly his break,and the same could be said about Chris Evans and even Kristen Stewart (although this came shortly after Speak). Diane Lane, Donald Sutherland, and Elizabeth Perkins seem to take a backseat to Yelchin and the younger cast, but bring a lot of depth to their roles and the film. This movie is a perfect reason not to trust critics and to go with your gut. It's been so long since I've uncovered a movie like this, and given it was out so long without me seeing it, it makes me want to dig around and see what else I'm missing.

• Chosen 7

  
  Interesting film, good performances.

• Leo L

  
  An intriguing movie! Great story plot about the hardship a mother and her son, endures, and struggles with. Great cast of actors, especially with young Anton Yelchin. Phenomenal. Although Chris Evans's character is a little on the creepy side. Nonetheless, a great movie and worth… More
  An intriguing movie! Great story plot about the hardship a mother and her son, endures, and struggles with. Great cast of actors, especially with young Anton Yelchin. Phenomenal. Although Chris Evans's character is a little on the creepy side. Nonetheless, a great movie and worth watching every now and then.

• Laurence C

  
  Fierce People's dissection of the parallels between South American tribes and the American elite is outrageously less relevant than it promised to be. Even worse, an act of ritualized violence that occurs halfway through the movie trades what might have been an interesting point… More
  Fierce People's dissection of the parallels between South American tribes and the American elite is outrageously less relevant than it promised to be. Even worse, an act of ritualized violence that occurs halfway through the movie trades what might have been an interesting point of view for a bleak sentimental claptrap. What results is a collection of hit-or-miss scenes, that said many of which impress by their remarkable panache and witty dialogue. A host of talented performers, in particular Sutherland, render this lukewarm exercise in behavioral study tolerable, but the overall impression leaves much to be desired.

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