Pups

Released 1999
Stars Cameron Van Hoy, Mischa Barton, Burt Reynolds, Kurt Loder, Adam Ferrar
Directed by Ashley Baron Cohen

"Pups" looks ragged and slammed-together, but that's part of its appeal; the film has a wildness that more care would have killed. It's about a bank robbery and hostage crisis involving a 13-year-old and his girlfriend. Why this bank? "It was on the way to school." The kids, named Stevie and Rocky, are played by Cameron Van Hoy and Mischa Barton in two of the most natural and freed performances I have seen by actors of any age. There is an unhinged quality about Van Hoy's acting; he waves his mother's loaded gun while ordering around the adults he's found in the bank, and although we know his character got his lines by watching TV, his energy level is awesome. He pumps out words and postures, flailing his arms, jazzed by the experience, implying a whole childhood in the way he seizes this power.

Van Hoy is a newcomer. Barton, who plays his girlfriend, has a lot of professional experience, but must never have found a role like this before. You can sense her exhilaration as she behaves the way a 13-year-old girl would behave--not dampened down by a conventional screenplay. Often Van Hoy and Barton waltz through long takes, working without the net of editing. The details of the FBI siege are unconvincing, and an encounter between Rocky and her father rings false, but I think you have to buy the movie's flaws as the price of its anarchic freedom.

At one point, having ordered pizzas, the kids think of another demand. "We could be on MTV," Rocky says, thinking of "The Real World." "You know--like six strangers meet in a bank and are forced to live together." MTV personality Kurt Loder, playing himself, shows up, and his interview with the kids is the heart of the film.

Summary by Roger Ebert

This could have been a great film. The energy level is just right, but the screenplay is only about 75% baked. Burt Reynold's character needed to be completely re-written, and some of the kids' dialogue needed to be reworked to sound less like an adult writer and more like teens. For the most part, the kids do sound and behave like teens, but there are several lines sprinkled throughout that ring false. When I first started watching it, I thought it was a bad made-for-cable movie--especially when there were about 100 FBI agents and sharpshooters at the bank five minutes after the alarm was tripped. It did get much better, though, but then it flagged. This cycle repeated enough to keep me watching, but it made it difficult to recommend.

The best part of the movie was Kurt Loder's interview. I assume he played the role as closely to himself as he could. If that's true and he wasn't parodying himself, he's one funny dude. He has a sardonic, ironic wit that's hilarious. There were so many good lines, but I think my favorite was due to his delivery. He asked Stevie what he wanted to be when he grew up. When Stevie didn't seem to understand the question, Kurt said, "Let me re-phrase the question. What would you like to BE when you grow up?" He was an understated smartass who probably would have been shot if the kids had been intelligent enough to catch it. --Bill Alward, July 16, 2001