I caught a sneak preview of Hellion at IFC last night, which featured Aaron Paul and director Kat Candler in a Q&A afterward. I guess I’m a little out of it, because I didn’t anticipate it would be such a scene, with ecstatic hipster groupies forming an endless line up Sixth Avenue to see Jesus. It was quite funny to observe them, actually, because most clearly had no idea what this movie was about, and upon discovering (part way into the film) that it was this gritty, depressing tale of fucked up parents and children in poor, southeast Texas, and that Aaron Paul hardly had any lines and didn’t look particularly cute, they were leaving the theater to visit the bathroom at a rate I’ve never seen equaled in all my years of movie-going. Afterward, though, they happily got what they came for, and Aaron Paul was gracious and generous with his time, even taking many “selfies” with the audience.

The movie itself was basically entertaining, with good performances, a well-plotted and sometimes exciting narrative, a good sense of place, and a gritty, direct approach to tough, emotional subject matter. Pacing was a bit slow overall, but not unbearably so. But like so many modern indie films, it also suffers from an overemphasis on literal realism, and a minimalist attitude to dialog and character development, together with a corresponding lack of narrative texture and idea exploration. The father is pretty much a total mystery man with almost nothing to say, the nature of his relationship to everyone else in the film (his sons, his sister-in-law, his best friend, and even his deceased wife) barely sketched. The film’s main character – the “hellion son” – while developed nicely in certain ways, is himself a bit of a mystery, with key things like his interest and skill in racing, his prior relationship with his dad and his aunt, and the nature of his attitude toward his younger brother left unspecified and unexplored. And the key supporting character of the fat, violent kid is for the most part undeveloped, rendering his actions (and their effects) a bit confusing. This lack of detail limited the film’s impact considerably, as there was relatively little information to serve as a bonding agent between the main characters and the audience.

Basically, the story holds your attention and you admire this film’s honesty and integrity, but at the same time the characters are not as compelling as they should have been, and the film is not all that rewarding to watch. Compare this film to the identically-themed film In a Better World, for example, which managed not only to paint (through fabulous dialog, of course) a very satisfying psychological portrait of all the characters, children and adults alike, but also managed to take its various character-based plots and simultaneously extrapolate them to a commentary on universal themes of human existence. In a Better World stays with you, powerfully, and can be watched over and over, whereas with Hellion you watch it once and you’re done with it. This is not to heap abuse on Hellion, but the comparison does highlight the inherent limitations of the various tropes and fads which currently plague the indie scene (mainly: excessive realism and dialogic minimalism.)

I should also mention that the music in Hellion was a problem. It has a loud, irritating death-metal soundtrack, chosen to make the film more intense, but the film is already quite intense by virtue of its hard-hitting subject matter, and I think in the end it was overkill. The music alone is enough of a reason for me to avoid seeing this film a second time – whatever they think was was gained by choosing this particular soundtrack, it was not worth the price of further grating their audience’s already jangled nerves.

Candler got great performances from all five kids, none of whom had acted before; their group scenes, their easy banter and chemistry, were for me the most enjoyable and impressive part of the film. Aaron Paul gives a quiet, serious performance, but the aforementioned cursoriness of his character worked against him, his lines almost entirely limited to grunted banalities like “come here”, “sit down”, “you need to eat something”, “watch your language”, “we gotta do better”. Juliette Lewis was quite good in her limited role as the boys’ aunt.

I would sort of recommend Hellion, as long as you don’t mind a really grating soundtrack. It’s a pretty well-made film and a good story, certainly worlds better then the shit that Hollywood is churning out this year.