Review of Mean Creek (2004) by Lee B — 28 Feb 2011

What hits me about Estes' Mean Creek every time is the subtleness and realism of it. We see the motives for what each character does and we feel equally sympathetic towards both sides of the story.

First off, the writing is just brilliant. A lot of the time there is silence as we take in the extraordinary feel of the simplistic cinematography. This heightens the picture and makes it feel like a documentary, and that's the true beauty of it.

Quite often we see into George's camera and how his world is and see how nice he is, but straight after we hear him being abusive and loud to the other characters. It's this that really takes me aback on every viewing.

It's just that there is no definitive motive or what the character's personality is, whether it good nor bad. It's that simplistic and subtle though-provoking feel of the film that makes it what is.

The cast features little known actors. Rory Culkin who plays Sammy, we know of and there's also Josh Peck who plays George from the tv show Drake & Josh. To me, it's these defining performances that cement this film.

They are so silent and almost effortless that you can relate and understand them. The score is also a very vital part of the film. Often during these silences on the boat or in the car we hear radio music, and it just builds up the tension ever so fantastically, as we know how it all plays out in the end.

Tension is a vital part of these sorts of film, and it's used expertly here. I've seen this a good half a dozen times, and I still feel the same amount of raw emotion that I did when I first watched it about 2 years ago, and that to me is an indication of pure cinematic brilliance.

I would easily place this in my top 5 films of all-time. I love it a lot.