Mini's First Time

Mini's First Time ***

Now, this is my kind of movie. The kind of dark, screwed up, tale of sex, murder, mystery, etc etc. Kind of like "Heathers," only made a decade later, and even more dark and creepy. And I loved every minute of it. "Mini's First Time" features characters that are so downright disgusting, that you just love to hate them. It's that type where people always complain that you can't like the movie because you can't either relate to the characters, or find it in your heart to want them to succeed. To those people, I say to lighten up. You don't always have to relate to characters to like a movie. It is alright to just observe them sometimes, without trying to be like them.

Nikki Reed plays Mini, a teenage girl with doesn't really give a damn about school, because it is too monotonous and routine for her. She would rather be out, doing things that are new to her. Her idea of life is that it is a series of "firsts," and in order to have a successful life, people must fill their lives with as many firsts are humanly possible. Her next first, to join an escort service. Her family life doesn't really help her screwed up perspectives. Her mother, Diane, is a drunk, who often tells her daughter that her theighs look fat. There's not much love in this family. On her second job at the escort service, she is assigned to spend a night with Martin(Alec Baldwin), a rich, lawyer who also happens to be her stepfather. Mini automatically says "Why not?" and proceeds to seduce him, to the little of his knowledge. Eventually he finds out, and the two start an affair, which distances Martin from Diane. Eventually, he doesn't want to be in that house anymore, and would rather be with Mini. And that is when she comes up with a brilliant solution. They get rid of her mother. "No, we can't murder her," protests Martin. And Mini says that they don't have to murder her, all they need to do is get rid of her. So, she comes up with ideas to try and get people to think that her dear old mother is insane, and can't be around people anymore. She changes her mother's appointments, by pretending to be her. She books her mother's party planner to plan a party with elephants and monkeys, and everybody does indeed think that Diane is planning these things, even when she protests that she has nothing to do with them. And that's when a simple little plan of insanity turns to murder, which leads to the nosey police officer John Garson, who knows that something is up.

The idea may seem formulaic, but the execution is what matters. All the preformances are on-key, especially Carrie Ann Moss, which still doesn't explain her wooden preformances in the Matrix movies. Between this, and "The Chumscrubber," she really is able to showcase her acting talents. Alec Baldwin looks like he's having a good time here, but he is another one that always is something to watch. I mean, it's not the perfect film, but it's dark and witty enough to entertain just about anyone who appriciates that type of humor. And lastly, Nick Gunte's(who ironically is a first time director) script is full of many twists and turns, even if they may become a bit obvious. But like last years, "The Ice Harvest," the twists may be predictable and obvious, but it's still alot of fun watching them come out. It's not gettign a very wide release, which doesn't really make sense because I feel this one could make a nice buck.