Pressure

Author(s): George
Location: Atlanta

"Pressure"

Directed by: Larry Clark
Written by: Terry George
Music by: Gustavo Santaolalla

Main Cast

Alex Pettyfer as Jack Martin
Gaius Charles as Mickey
Adrianne Palicki as Laura
Shia LaBeouf as Danny
Lea Thompson as Lily Martin
Sam Neill as Mark Martin

Tagline: "Innocence is Bliss"

Synopsis: Jack Martin is 15 and is moving to the Big Apple from a rural Texas town because of a job transfer for his dad. His parents, Mark and Lily, are happily married and love Jack and he loves them. When they arrive to New York they have a talk about how Jack is not to get mixed up in the "bad crowd" at school. Jack assures them that he will be good and they are all very happy. He goes to school and is surprised by the bad treatment of some of the kids, but he brushes that away. What he doesn't see can't hurt him. Right?

When he starts his next week at school, he meets a very rebellious but smooth-talking junior named Mickey. Mickey says that Jack needs to learn the ropes around the school and that the first thing he has to do is stop listening to everything around him and do what he wants to do. Jack isn't sure, but he tries it and he feels better, but his grades don't show it. Mickey introduces Jack to his friend, Laura. She instantly tantalizes Jack and he doesn't realize he is already on the wrong path for a teenager.

Mickey and Laura keep egging Jack to come to a party that Saturday. Against his better judgment, Jack agrees, making up some excuse to make himself feel better. Sneaking out of his house Saturday, Jack goes to Mickey's house and is introduced to a world he never knew existed. He is instantly greeted by Mickey's chain-smoking friend, Danny, and then is given a cigarette and a beer. Everyone there gets very high and the party starts to get wild. Soon Laura seduces Jack to the upstairs bedroom, they have rough sex, and suddenly Jack sees a new world: one where the rules don't apply.

Soon enough Mickey and Danny tell Jack the next day that he has to do something for them because of last night's pleasures. He is forcibly put to the task to help Danny get some of his "snacks" to the nearest street corner, and get paid. After a couple of parties and a couple of routes with Danny, Jack sees that he has reached a place where he cannot get down from, a place where there is no law or boundaries. Jack starts to get scared, but he is trapped in the pressure and claustrophobia of the world he has entered.

Mickey and Danny soon have a plan to get even with some junkies that didn't give them enough money for Danny's "snacks". They recruit Jack to look for the junkies at night and then shoot them as a reminder of what they have done. When Jack initially refuses, Danny threatens Jack's life and his the lives of his parents. Jack is stuck, and he cannot get out. That night they go out and find the junkies at a nearby stripclub. As they come out, they give Jack the order to do it. Jack knows he can't, and he starts shaking. He starts crying, knowing that he himself decided to do this. No one else is responsible. Danny grabs Jack's hand and forces him to press the trigger, and kills three of the five junkies. They other two run, and Mickey pushes Jack out of the car and drives off with Danny.

Jack can already hear the sirens and he can't imagine what his parents must of thought of him. After he had lied to them so much about where he was going, and the worried looks they had. He grabs the gun, and promptly kills himself. A victim of the very world he was trying to escape...

What the Press would say:

Larry Clark is not one of the most famed directors ever. He is criticized for being to graphic with his words and pictures on film. It is because of this, that PRESSURE is an extremely real and heart-breaking story. There is plenty of language, violence, sex, and drug use in the film, but this is why the film succeeds. The amount of realism it gives is simply incredible, and Larry Clark proves that he has meaning with all of his movies. This definitely could be a companion piece to his extremely controversial indie KIDS, but this has much more depth than his previous film. The movie itself is almost a one-man show, with Pettyfer delivering an amazing performance. Charles and Palicki deliver good enough performance, but LaBeouf delivers a great and scene-stealing performance as the, ultimately, evil teen Danny. George's screenplay is terrific and despite the improvised feel of the film, it follows closely to his script. Some movies like this are just put out to be controversial, and to get a rise out of people. This could be interpreted as such a film, but it's study at the loss of innocence is terrible, but cruelly ironic at the same time.

Awards Description:
Best Picture
Best Actor (Pettyfer)
Best Supporting Actor (LaBeouf)
Best Director (Clark)
Best Screenplay (George)