The Dirties

            At some point in life, one may have come across or at least hear of the term "Exploitation Film". This term is typically used to describe films from the 60's and 70's that exploited something in then modern events. Typically they focused on sex, drugs, violence or anything on the collective mind in excess and made them the focus. While many are seen now as funny and quirky because of the outdated taboos and hammy acting, exploitation films still occur today and hit on very real subjects, such as school shootings.

            Made in 2013 and released in 2014, The Dirties attempts to show how seemingly typical teenagers could become killers. The focus of the film is on two friends named Matt (Matt Johnson) and Owen (Owen Williams). The two are very geeky film nuts that are making a film called "The Dirties" for their film class. The film they're making is a fictional piece about two high school detectives taking out the bullies, known as The Dirties.

            However, the two are seen as geeks by the local bullies who terrorize them continuously. Eventually, Owen decides to take "The Dirties" film a little farther than expected. He starts getting blueprints, practicing firing guns, and reading books about Columbine. Matt meanwhile, is starting to drift away from Owen as he begins acting more bizarrely and even defriends him when he finds out Owens true plans. You might think that this is a standardly shot film, but it's actually a found footage/P.O.V. film with another kid filming all the action.

            While this is an interesting idea, this leads to a very unsettling question. Why hasn't the camera person (whose name is only mentioned once and never again) reported any of this? They usually hang around with Owen even when he goes deeper into his psychopathy and never talks even though Owen talks to him. It's pointless to have a named character hold the camera without even asking or answering any questions. It really shows that the filmmakers didn't consider this before making the movie.

            That's the over-arching problem with this movie. It feels like the filmmakers watched news reports and decided to make a movie. Owen is shown at the beginning of the film as someone who's just quirky until he shows off "The Dirties". He then suddenly heel turns into someone who decides he's going to shoot his bullies. There's no buildup to this moment and it just comes out of nowhere. This would have been a good chance to really dissect someone who would consider such a heinous act, but they blew it.

            Compare this to the movie Chronicle, which deals with some of the same themes. A kid, who gets bullied by his peers and has no escape, gets the power to exact his revenge. That movie really looked into the mind of someone who really doesn't have any hope, someone who has been continually bullied by almost every person in their life. We see the main character slowly build to the point to where he outright kills people while we see his darkest personal moments with his camera. We don't get any moments like that in The Dirties.

            The acting in the movie is pretty bland, with Owen being really unlikeable from the beginning. He's annoying and constantly making movie references because he's a film nerd. Matt is also really dull and only seems to be there for the good guy that decides to leave Owen factor. Everyone else is a non-entity; including the bullies who are barely in it except for three scenes.

            Overall, this film is exploiting the fact that school shootings are currently on the mind of a lot of people. Filmmakers did not consider the various story and character problems when making the movie. The characters are either generic or non-existent, and the story seems to be going through the motions of what one hears on the news. The viewer gets no new insights into what drives someone to commit such an act. This is a real shame since found footage really could have delivered a deep look into this problem.

As it stands, this movie was only made to make money off of the fact that there has been a rise in school shootings. If you want to see a good movie examine disturbed youth, watch Chronicle. It handles the situation better and knows what it is talking about. The Dirties is a film that could have been interesting if the filmmakers knew what they were doing. However, as it stands, The Dirties ranks among the other "Exploitation Films" and does not highlight anything new.