Shayne O'Neill

Don't go into this one casually. Prepare to have your heart ripped out emotionally. Everyone is in terrible pain in this film, from the kid to his family. There is a moral lesson in this movie, but its a complex one, about how we raise our boys and how we fail them by not teaching them how to be gentle men who respect and honor women and girls. And the terrible outcomes. But it doesn't sit in condemnation. The parents of the child are fundamentally decent loving people utterly baffled and terrified by the whirlwind of institutional *coldness* that is unleashed when a murder happens. But even the cops, the agents of those institutions are as mystified by it all. And overarching all of this is a fundamental sadness, because the thing with a murder is that murder is forever. The poor girl, who we dont learn much about, forever reduced to a victim rather than the complete person she was. And thats forever. This film had me absolutely blubbering at the end, and I'm a grownass man who doesnt cry. And here I am in grief for these fictional people. Thats the devestating and beautiful power of film. This things a classic and belongs in the same pantheon as The Wire. But don't approach this casually. This ones gonna hurt.

Awesome. Firefly meets fallout.