Stealing Cars (2016)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I highly recommend this movie. It's one of those movies that worth watching. Good performances. The main character, a really clever and complex boy will make you more and more interested. The performance by Emory Cohen is very powerful. I have to say that this movie caught me since the beginning. If you feel a particular interest in independent films, you should watch this one.

I enjoyed the concept behind this movie and wished it well when I began watching it. A restless youth trying to find a way to blend into society? Sounded like a good idea to me, a sort of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE for a new decade. The end result left me wishing for something better fitting the theme.Billy Wyatt (Emory Cohen) is a trouble youth sent to the Bernville Camp for Boys for stealing cars. Here is where things begin to go south. The camp begins to fill out with clichés from nearly every prison movie ever seen. We have the sadistic guard who takes no guff and deals out corporal punishment whenever he can. We have various groups in the camp who keep themselves sorted from one another. And we have an anti-hero who walks around with a smart mouth and becomes friends with no group but with a single other outsider.As the film progresses the warden of the facility, Montgomery De La Cruz (John Leguizamo), attempts to break down the walls that Billy has built around himself in an attempt to help him. At least at times it seems that way. At other times the character seems to revert back to being that stereotypical warden character seen in so many films. There is no fault in Leguizamo on this matter but in the writing of the character. One moment he seems threatening and the next sympathetic.As Billy deals with his time in the camp in various ways. He breaks out on at least three separate occasions. Somehow that feels like the security in this place needs work but no one ever addresses that. He begins what could be a romantic connection to the camp nurse (Heather Lind), an employee that seems to be there for battling her own demons rather than to help young people battling theirs. Lastly he breaks down the barriers between different factions in the camp to get them to unite in a project taking on the role of leader. These separate issues never seem to quite gel before the end of the film though each of them are answered.What really does harm to the movie is the low end quality of the whole film. The look is less polished than most and not done so from an artistic standpoint at least that I could tell. The performances are just so so and the main character of Billy as portrayed by Cohen lacks any reason for anyone to feel sympathy for him, even when we learn what sent him over the edge. So much time is spent making him seem like such a jerk that by the time we should feel something for him we can't care. His quips and attempts at being a smart aleck are lame at best and unbelievable for the most part.In the end you want to care for Billy and the rest of the boys in the camp but the movie feels more like an afterschool special than a feature film. I'm certain there are some for whom this film will fulfill the needs they have and the standards that they set but for me I found it lacking. It's supposed to be based on a true story but my guess is the real story was far more interesting than its portrayed here.

This movie is well worth watching. I am shocked at the low rating being given. The acting is completely genuine. The Story is gripping and important. I can only put the low reviews down to a jaded public. I suppose there have been too many movies made about this subject, but at least it is real life. And it is not overly dramatic. Billy's talk may be over the heads of some viewers, but he is actually extremely intelligent and often quoting from books. It lends real interest to the movie, and is effective at showcasing his thoughts.Yes, the supporting cast are a cast of familiar faces, however they are all good actors and contribute to the film.If you go for fantasy and sci-fi as most of the population does, I suppose this is only a 5.4 in that world. But in the world of reality it merits a 10.

Some sluggish direction and pacing rob Stealing Cars of being a really great film about juvenile crime and incarceration. Stealing Cars is in a tradition of films like this that go back to James Cagney's Mayor In Hell.Emory Cohen is our brilliant protagonist in the sense of one high IQ. Yet he's in the Bernwood Correctional Facility for a tragic mistake that has made him forgot to care about anything. His role model seems to be Paul Newman from Cool Hand Luke.Besides Cohen the acting honors go to John Leguizamo as the warden of the place. Is scene with Cohen where Cohen finally breaks down and we learn the reason for his cynicism is brilliant. But we also learn that Leguizamo has his own agenda and it's not a healthy one.I'm agreeing with another reviewer that the characters besides these two have no real depth as written and no great direction to make them come to life. Still Stealings Cars is a worthwhile film to watch.