Pups (film)
| Pups | |
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DVD cover art
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| Directed by | Ash Baron-Cohen (as Ash) |
| Produced by | Daniel M Berger |
| Written by | Ash Baron-Cohen |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Erran Baron Cohen |
| Cinematography | Carlos Arguello |
| Edited by | Michael Schultz |
| Distributed by | Allied Entertainment Group |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 mins |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Pups is a 1999 American independent crime drama film written and directed by Ash, and stars Mischa Barton, Burt Reynolds and Cameron Van Hoy. The film centres on two young adolescents that embark on a bank robbery on their way to school. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival on 18 April 1999. The film, although well received critically received a limited release that has been attributed as sensitivity to the Columbine High School massacre that occurred two days after the premiere.
Stevie (Van Hoy) finds a gun in his mother's closet, and on his way to school with his girlfriend, Rocky (Barton), decides to use the gun to rob a bank. The police come and surround the building. One FBI agent, Daniel Bender (Reynolds), tries to free the hostages. Initially he is calm and cooperative, giving food, condoms, beer and an MTV reporter by request.
"As the situation furthers, Bender gets frustrated. After several failed attempts at impossible requests, Stevie decides to surrender. Rocky and he leave the guns, money, and hostages in the bank. As the two walk away, Stevie reaches for a flower in his pocket, and a sniper shoots him dead. Bender asks to get that "mother fucker down from that roof"
The film is set in an unnamed American suburb and was shot in Chatsworth, Los Angeles. It was financed by Japan-based Team Okuyama in October 1998, with the condition that filming would be complete by December of the same year. The film was shot in two weeks in December 1998. The director, Ash noted that the film was timely within the context of real-life crimes during this period, alluding to the Jonesboro shootings; "The film was a reflection of what was going on in Jonesboro and around the world,". As well as the controversy of the Columbine killings, the release of the film was complicated by the arrest of one of its co-stars, Adam Farrar. Farrar had been arrested in March 1999 on suspicion of attempted murder and making terrorist threats against his girlfriend.
The film was well received by critics, it currently holds a 90% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Robert Koehler of Variety praised the execution of the film "Applying all the assets of seat-of-your-pants indie filmmaking with few of its deficits, Ash has delivered a sinewy, disturbing sophomore work.. "Pups" gives off the energy of a movie shot on the run with few of the rough edges that typically dog such rapid-fire filmmaking." Koehler continued to single out the picture as a "perceptive spin on the teen pic". Koehler also praised the casting "Van Hoy leads the way, with a startling, haunting film debut that matches pic's sense of impulse, rage and humanism. Barton quietly suggests a smart girl who knows she's in trouble but might find a way out. Besieged on all sides, Reynolds works against his character's cliches and indicates that "Boogie Nights" was no fluke."
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Wikipedia