Alpha Dog (2006)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Nick Cassavetes

Writer (WGA):

Nick Cassavetes (written by)

Release Date:

12 January 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Inspired by true events.

Plot:

A drama based on the life of Jesse James Hollywood, a drug dealer who became one of the youngest men ever to be on the FBI's most wanted list.

Plot Keywords:

Cell Phone | Bong | Volkswagen Beetle | Teenage Boy | Blind Fold

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Bruce Willis	...	Sonny Truelove
Matthew Barry	...	Interviewer (as Matt Barry)
Emile Hirsch	...	Johnny Truelove
Fernando Vargas	...	Tiko 'TKO' Martinez
Vincent Kartheiser	...	Pick Giaimo
Justin Timberlake	...	Frankie Ballenbacher
Shawn Hatosy	...	Elvis Schmidt
Alex Solowitz	...	Bobby '911'
Alec Vigil	...	P.J. Truelove
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Cosmo Gadabeeti
Frank Cassavetes	...	Adrian Jones
Nicole Dubos	...	Neighborhood Girl on Couch
Regina Rice	...	Dance Bitch Girl
Laura Nativo	...	Party Girl
Ben Foster	...	Jake Mazursky

Also Known As:

Jesse James Hollywood (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive drug use and language, strong violence, sexuality and nudity.

Runtime:

USA:122 min | USA:117 min (Sundance Film Festival) | Germany:118 min | Argentina:122 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

UK:15 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | USA:R (certificate #42022) | Ireland:18 | Italy:T | Germany:16 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Singapore:R21 (cut) | France:-12 | Finland:K-15 | Netherlands:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Argentina:18 | Malaysia:(Banned) | South Korea:18 | Peru:18 | New Zealand:R16 | Brazil:16

Filming Locations:

Acton, California, USA

Company:

Sidney Kimmel Entertainment

Trivia:

When Wanda Haynes (Heather Wahlquist) screams "Heil" in Jake Mazursky's (Ben Foster) apartment, the entire part was improvised. When done with the line, the cast went along with it, and then director, Nick Cassavetes kept it in the film.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The Grn Apple Tree baseball tee worn by Frankie late in the film would not be released until the mid 2000's. Magic Hat beer is seen in several different scenes, but Magic Hat is not sold outside of the North East US states. The film takes place in CA.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Sonny Truelove: You wanna know what this is all about? You can say it's about drugs or guns or disaffected youth, or whatever you like. But this whole thing is about parenting. It's about taking care of your children. You take care of yours, I take care of mine.

Movie Connections:

References Scarface (1983)

Soundtrack:

Pool Party

Doggoned Good!

Yo, Dog! I am going to create my film review of Director Nick Cassavetes' youth crime flick "Alpha Dog" in alphabetical order. A is for "Awesome" ensemble acting from Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Foster, Harry Dean Stanton, Bruce Willis, and Sharon Stone. Hirsch plays the real-life juvenile delinquent Jesse James Hollywood (his character name here is Johnny Truelove) who mastered the kidnapping and ordered the fatal hit on a younger stepbrother of a drug addict customer who owed him money. Truelove was truly in love with the juvie negligent life of sex, drugs, guns, and chaos. He was in "America's Most Wanted" list for several years until his capture a couple of years ago in Brazil. Hirsch's captivating acting continues to increase his acting stock in "America's Most Wanted Actors" list from the film industry. Timberlake also brought his surprising strong acting back here as the contrived Truelove right-hand juvenile delinquent man Frankie. Timberlake's Frankie is portrayed as a warm-hearted but unrighteous youth who is a follower and not a leader or in his case this Frankie Always Goes To Hollywood, Hollywood Jesse James that is. Shawn Hatosy is king here as Elvis, the Truelove brownnoser who craves to prove his criminal self to Johnny The Leader, so much so that Elvis is the one that ends up committing the murder on the young stepbrother Zach Mazursky. Ben Foster plays older stepbrother Jake Mazursky, the aforementioned drug addict nemesis of Truelove. Foster fosters another powerful psychotic acting performance here as he did in "3:10 To Yuma". Bruce Willis was a bad daddy-o in a good acting way as Truelove's dad Sonny and Harry Dean Stanton was cosmic as the geriatric loudmouth Cosmo. I must state though that the most solid performance of "Alpha Dog" is barked out from Sharon Stone as Olivia Mazursky, the grieving mom of Zach. Stone reaches the apex of her acting career in two emotionally driven scenes which brought more from her than her usual basic acting instinct. Back to the Alphabet! B is for "Ballicious" (Ok, not a word). But I must state that it did take some major testicular action for Director Nick Cassavetes to orchestrate this gutsy real- life drama on screen with adequate precision. C is for "Cliché" because even though Cassavetes did get A's from me for his direction, his formulaic screenplay could have used more of a witty alphabetical dialogue. Of course, I am not going to go through the entire alphabet on my viewpoints of "Alpha Dog". However, I do think that through my aforementioned analysis of "Alpha Dog" it spells out a recommended viewing of this gripping film. **** Good