Review of The Vicious Kind (2009) by Mike C — 29 Jun 2010

A delightfully bleak breeze of cold, melancholic air, The Vicious Kind is an offbeat gem. Adam Scott is a superb find in a strange but compelling dramatic performance, and Brittany Snow finds a place alongside his performance's wavelength and stays parallel to it. J.K. Simmons proves as he did in Juno that movie fathers don't need to be cut-and-paste cardboard cutouts, and Alex Frost evens out the cast as a straightedge smitten student. Vittorio Brahm has a small but vital role that really speaks of how well this film is written.

The Vicious Kind is the kind off independent film that doesn't broadcast it's entire plot within the first half hour, nor does it rely on quirks and plot devices to keep an audience interested. Instead it focuses nearly entirely on these characters and lets us see what makes them hurt and why. This film really is a unique and refreshingly cold find; a film you can watch blank and enjoy and then revisit for the performances, script and cold New England atmosphere.