The Odds (2011)
Directed by: Simon Davidson
In the suburbs of Vancouver, Desson (Tyler Johnston) and his high-school buddies drink, smoke, lie, steal and fight. Oh, and they gamble. A lot. They all seem to be in debt to a greater degree than their allowances will fix. When Desson’s best friend Barry (Calum Worthy) is found hanging in the family garage one morning, it looks to his peers like a suicide brought on by the magnitude of his losses. But Desson knows better…
In fact, Desson and his copains know better about everything than, well, anyone. This movie posits a world in which teenagers have the sophistication, experience, charm and intelligence to do everything. Given that it’s North America, they all have cars which, despite their ruinous indebtedness, our heroes can keep fuelled and ready to transport them around the scenes of this wretched movie. Adults are there to be ignored, despised, cowed and invisible, except when they are performing their only necessary function which is handing out money.
Acting is of the mid-afternoon soap variety, and the plot has the subtlety and believability of an episode of Batman. Introspection is limited – when Desson is forced to admit to himself and others that he has been helping to fleece his buddies, and has some complicity in his friend’s death, his reaction is what you expect if he’d just been told he’d scored a D-minus. And that’s what this film deserves. Ah, brave New World.
This guy has clearly never seen a soap opera before. He also was probably playing angry birds on his phone for most of the movie, considering that the film goes out of the way to cement it as Vancouver. That’s just one of many blatant facts which he gets wrong…which, of course, makes it hard for anyone to take this review seriously.
Thanks for pointing out my error about the film’s location, Jason – I guess I had Toronto on the brain because of TIFF. What about the other facts you thought were wrong?
I totally agree with the first comment. Did this guy even watch the film? Even if I agreed with his points, this is such a laughable review that even a grade schooler most likely scoff at it. It sounds like I’m exaggerating for humorous purposes, but honestly, I’m not and I’m pretty sure anyone would agree with me. He gets so many things wrong that it’s probably not even worth correcting him. Not to mention, he’ll probably change it all around and of course, people should be aware of his mistakes.
I’m guessing you liked the movie, Kalen. Would you like to say what you think made a good film? And if you’ve spotted a factual error in my review, I’ll correct it and give you the credit for pointing it out, as I did with the one Jason spotted.