Wild Tigers I Have Known

Wild Tigers I Have Known *

Directed by Cam Archer
Written by Cam Archer

Starring:
Malcolm Stumpf as Logan
Patrick White as Rodeo
Max Paradise as Joey
Tom Gilroy as The Principal
Fairuza Balk as Logan's Mom
Kim Dickens as The Counselor

98 Minutes(Not Rated-Sexual Material)
----------------------------------
"Wild Tigers I Have Known" is one of the most awkward, forced, dull, and uninspiring film I've seen in a long time, if not ever. This is another one of those small indie flicks that are trying to be tough, edgy, and downright disturbing through the way it depicts children. Other examples of this are "Mean Creek," and the more recent "Twelve and Holding." Now "Mean Creek" was executed fantastically, mainly because it had a sharp script and an even sharper ensemble. "Twelve and Holding" was effective, not so much from the script but from the way the children actors acted-taking some rather outlandish material and playing it as if that is how kids act. Now with "Wild Tigers," we have one of the worst leading child actors with a Madonna movie under his belt, as well as a script that pretty much nonexistent. And then Cam Archer's directing makes it seem like he was on a lunch break every day during shooting and handed the camera over to any guy walking down the street. Nobody will ever understand how much I despised this film. I hated every single little pretentious minute of it, and found that most of the time was eyes were getting heavier and heavier or my hand was flipping my cell phone to see how much more time I had to sit through it.

The main character-or the person that Archer chooses to have us follow for ninety minutes-is Logan, a thirteen year old boy who is going through puberty. From the opening shot of him pleasuring himself, I should have known what I was in for. He doesn't have many friends, except for Joey, but Joey is beginning to have the feeling that there is a large gap between them. One example is that Joey likes to spend his time making lists on How to Be Cool, while meanwhile Logan likes to wear blonde wigs. Joey gets the idea that Logan might be gay when Logan insists on putting on lipstick when Joey wants to take a photo of him. Logan's mom doesn't give him much support, yelling at him when he does the one little mistake of dropping a bag of groceries. And Logan is forced to see the school counselor from time to time. After one such meeting he meets Rodeo, an older kid in the eighth grade, and as they develop some sort of friendship Logan becomes infatuated with him. It gets to the point where he calls up Rodeo every night pretending to be a girl name Leah who has a crush on him. Rodeo demands that he gets to see this Leah so that he could have sex with her, and when "she" allows him to meet "her" everything comes out in the open.

I did not hesitate in pretty much revealing that everything comes out in the open because there is no tension or plot to really feel like I spoiled anything. Nothing happens in "Wild Tigers I Have Known," and it is not an interesting character study because I did not like any of the characters. Logan is probably one of the most annoying people I have ever had the displeasure of watching. And Cam Archer's script doesn't add much to try to give any sympathy to him. His direction doesn't improve matters either. Every now and then Archer will film a standard scene, with two characters talking, simple as that. And then for about five minutes after that he'll go into this warped, twisted, style with a symbolic spider crawling across the screen, and Logan staring at himself in the mirror. I understand that he wanted to make a film about the difficulties of growing up-a scene where Logan cuts off a tiny bit of his hair and tapes it under his arms comes to mind-but he does such a lame job as executing that. And then from time to time he goes for a quirky effect, and also showing a strong comparison between the kids and the adults, and that fails. A back story, and what opens the film, is that a wild tiger escaped from the caves near the town and attacked a kid. To respond to that, and to show the children that they shouldn't fear or what to do in case of another attack, etc, is that the principal and two of the teachers have created a little skit where one of the students dresses up like a tiger and is supposed to "attack" the principle. These "witty" characters appear again towards the end when a list goes around with people's names who say that Logan is gay. The principle and two teachers get together again and create a large tree which they call the "Tolerance Totem." It isn't very funny, and seems extremely misplaced in an otherwise pointless film.

"Wild Tigers I Have Known" forces this so called character study on the viewer and expects us to buy it. But there is nothing to like, and nothing interesting to observe. Archer is thinking that he could make a film about the tragedy of junior high better than "Mean Creek," or "Welcome to the Dollhouse." He doesn't bother giving us emotions, or acting, or even a good visual look. This was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for cinematography and I don't understand how. The grainy digital video made it extremely unpleasant to watch, as if it weren't already. I can't see how anybody could get entertainment from such a horrible experience. The opening scenes of Logan pleasuring himself is probably just Cam Archer pleasuring himself through film making, because that's all this movie is. It was like watching a Gus Van Sant film. Oh look! Van Sant was a producer for it too! It's easy to see where Archer was influenced. Whether it is artistic masturbation or sexual, "Wild Tigers I Have Known" manages to portray both, and neither one is very pleasant to watch.