The Dirties

Cast of Characters:

Matt - Matthew Johnson

Owen - Owen Williams

Chrissy H. - Krista Madison

Jackman - Brandon Wickens

Mr. Muldoon - David Matheson

Director - Matthew Johnson

Screenplay - Matthew Johnson & Evan Morgan

Not Rated

      Matthew Johnson writes, directs and costars with Owen Williams in the dark comedy indie flick The Dirties. Kevin Smith said this is by far the most important movie you will see all year. Could he be right... or perhaps he's just full of shit? After all, I still haven't forgiven him for directing Cop Out.

      Wow, those anti-bullying campaigns are really stepping up their efforts. Matt (Matthew Johnson) and Owen (Owen Williams) are high school film students in the midst of filming their own movie about two guys that seek revenge on a school bullying gang known as "The Dirties". Having absolutely no budget whatsoever, the two have to get rather creative to make their little film work. However, after showing a rough cut to their teacher Mr. Muldoon (David Matheson), Muldoon wants them to make drastic editing changes as he feels the language is too much and the school shooting scenes, although fake, are inappropriate for high schoolers.

      The film takes a turn for the worse mentally when Matt decides to film himself actually killing the Dirties, who throughout the film actually bully him and Owen at school. At first, Owen thinks it's just a really twisted joke by his best friend, but as the film progresses he starts realize Matt's far more serious about this than he is.

      "When something happens to you on camera, it's like it's not really happening." That's the justification Matt uses for his rather extreme anti-bullying campaign. The Dirties is an independent film out of Canada that happened to have caught the eye of Kevin Smith - one who's own film career got started with a little low-budget film called Clerks. While it's not a masterpiece, I still thoroughly enjoyed The Dirties in all its dark glory. The first act provides us with some funny and clever moments from Matt and Owen as they come up with cheaply effective ways to make their film. They reminded me a lot of my short-film making days right out of high school where I'd find whatever ways I could to save a buck (who needs two film sets when you have a front and back porch - BAM! Two home locations right there). We also get a number of catchy references to films like Pulp Fiction and Blazing Saddles as well as the acclaimed novel The Catcher in the Rye, the highly controversial book due to the number of shootings associated with it (Matt jokes with Owen that he's gonna check out six copies of it so the librarian thinks he's nuts). The second and third acts show Matt slowly descending into sociopathy as he plans on his school shooting, going as far as achieving blueprints (very easily too he points out to Owen) and mapping out which student is where and at what times throughout the day. It's hard to make a film that balances dark humor with a touchy subject as a school shooting. Earlier this year, Pain & Gain was able to handle real life events in Florida that involved innocents dying just right, balancing the humor with the seriousness of the crimes effectively (the big surprise being that it was a Michael Bay film, a director who's films I've never liked, even hated at times). The key was the filmmakers being in on the joke while the characters weren't. We never laughed with Wahlberg, Johnson and Mackie, we were laughing at their stupidity and that's the case here with the character of Matt. At first, we laugh at his stupidity much like his friend Owen does, but then we also begin to grow more and more horrified like Owen when we see Matt diving deeper and deeper into alienation with his plans. It's a tricky balancing act, but Matthew Johnson pulls off a solid and effective effort.

      Is Johnson another Kevin Smith in the making? Well, time and future projects will tell, but The Dirties at the least gets me to look forward to his next project. It's smoothly paced, edited well, the characters are well-written and developed, and the performances, most of them improvised, are genuine and natural. Some may find the way the film ends frustrating, but I felt it was just right, especially considering the relationship between the two (that's all I'll say about it). One question though: does the cameraman realize he's officially become the world's most anonymous accomplice? I give The Dirties an A- (★★★½).