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+ Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Anton Yelchin + Most Under-Appreciated Movie of the Year + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Worst Distribution of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year
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| Some of the theme and a section of the attractive cast are highlighted on this avocado-colored poster for Griffin Dunne's Fierce People |
A substance abuse massage therapist single mother relocates with her unwilling son into the home of a billionaire client, where they alternately charm and stir up problems in high society, as young Finn wins the heart of the old man.
Fierce People is written by Dirk Wittenborn (Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979)), based on his own same-titled 2002 novel, and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love (1997)). The story seems to have taken definite inspiration from the writings and philosophy of anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon, whether Wittenborn shares any familiar relation to the controversial figure or not. (The film's title reflects Chagnon's most famous and contested works, Yanomamö: The Fierce People (1968), a field study of the indigenous Amazon jungle tribe the Yanomamö, and the protagonist Finn character in the film here states that he prefers to visit his famous South-American Indian-studying anthropologist father, who claims to have found a 'fierce people', but is instead forced to stay with his mother and a strange rich family, whom he experiences and decides are definitely 'fierce people.')
Kristen Stewart (Camp X-Ray (2014)) and particularly Anton Yelchin (The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)), aged 14-15 at the time of shooting, with beautifully curly locks here, are simply adorable as youngsters falling in love in a very well-produced and well-shot (by William Rexer (Ceremony (2010))) coming-of-age drama, which just gets better and better. It also has good performances from Donald Sutherland (Dirty Sexy Money (2007-09)) and Diane Lane (Priceless Beauty (1988)).
SPOILER A rape is dealt with a little conveniently lightly, but the film's ending is thoroughly touching and insightful in its context. Fierce People is a very fine film.
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Cost: Reportedly 8 mil. $
Box office: 269k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.03 times its cost)
[Fierce People premiered 24 April (Tribeca Film Festival, New York) and runs 107 minutes. Dunne optioned Wittenborn's unfinished novel in 2002. Shooting took place in British Columbia, including Vancouver, in and around February 2004. The film was only released in relatively few markets, and its release in the US was halted until 2007 for various depressing reasons. It opened #70 to a 19k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #65 and in 25 theaters, grossing just 85k $ (31.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 73k $ (27.1 %) and Russia with 56k $ (20.8 %). Dunne returned with Your Product Here (2006, short) and theatrically with The Accidental Husband (2008). Lane returned in Must Love Dogs (2005), Yelchin in Alpha Dog (2006), Sutherland in Pride & Prejudice (2005), and Stewart in Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005). Fierce People is rotten at 24 % with a 4.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Fierce People?
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