Alpha Dog

last updated 8 January 2015

Be careful what you wish for, suburban white boys, said Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times. Alpha Dog is the story of well-off California teens who wanted nothing more than street cred. In 2000, a real-life pot dealer named Jesse James Hollywood kidnapped and killed a client's teenage brother over a $1,200 drug debt. At the request of Hollywood's lawyers, this documentary-style film has changed his name to Johnny Truelove, but it keeps most facts of the case intact. It gets the culture right, too. Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone exemplify two different types of irresponsible parent. Justin Timberlake and Shawn Hatosy, as yes men to Emile Hirsch's Truelove, speak 'œin an odd patois that suggests Vito Corleone channeled through Eminem.' Don't expect a fun shoot-'em-up flick, said S. James Snyder in The New York Sun. This is a moral fable about the way American youth worships the thug life. These idiotic kids desperately wanted to be cool and 'œwere willing to sacrifice their souls to get there.' And what do you know'”Justin Timberlake is actually a good actor, said Ruthe Stein in the San Francisco Chronicle. Timberlake's thug is 'œa bundle of anxiety' as he wakes up to the realization that he and his friends are real criminals. The pop star gives 'œa breakthrough performance on par with Edward Norton's in Primal Fear.'

Rating: R