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Lawn dogs
Threat advisory: Severe - Severe risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
It's a hot Kentucky summer. Twenty-two-year-old Trent Burns (Sam Rockwell) is a lawn dog who mows lawns for a living in the affluent Louisville suburb of Camelot Gardens. Each day he's treated like trouble by customers who try to short-change him, rich university kids who taunt him for fun and a security guard who's sure he's a thief. But Trent needs the money, so he grits his teeth and mows.
Ten-year-old Devon Stockard (Mischa Barton) is new to Camelot Gardens. Unlike her socially ambitious parents (Christopher McDonald and Kathleen Quinlan) she likes to be alone. Her imaginative world is tough. She is obsessed by a Russian tale about a witch who lives in the woods, and who kills and eats children.
Both Trent's and Devon's lives change the day she stumbles upon his trailer in a wooded glade, drawn to it by the tale of the witch. Devon is sure he's going to cook and eat her, but still can't keep away. Trent is hostile, knowing that the attentions of a 10-year-old girl can only bring trouble, but Devon is peculiarly persistent and returns to the trailer again and again. Silent at home, she can't stop talking to Trent, working hard to win over her new acquaintance.
Directed by John Duigan. Sam Rockwell won best actor at the 1997 Toronto fest.
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
A pile of shit, a great big fan, and a lot of velocity.
There are also a whole lot of clichés (more than you can hit with a stick) and some really incorrect politics, but this is Kentucky after all. And this is not, I repeat not, a kiddie film. It is a soul-rending piece of cinema that makes white trash seem attractive. (I am a romantic beneath the urbane mask of world weary cynicism.)
Knowing that the faeces and the fan are going to have a significant inter-personal relationship does not spoil the film, it intensifies the feelings you experience. Just as white trash Trent knows he's powerless in a world of the powerful, you know that he knows it, and you know that he's just waiting for the worst to happen. The anticipation is almost sexual in its intensity.
Sam Rockwell and Mischa Barton are perfectly and brilliantly cast. They are worth watching the whole time they are on screen (not a compliment I often award). The production values are flawless. The sound is delightful. The plot is redolent with twists, each twist is a turn of the screw and there's a fine line between screwing for pleasure and screwing for pain.
All I will say further is that this is a really good movie which must be seen.
Security censorship classification
MA 15+ (Adult themes)
Surveillance time
101 minutes (1:41 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 7 May 1998
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