Customer Reviews

Speed of Life

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a huge Scott Caan fan and have been waiting for this DVD to come out since it premeired in 1999 at Sundance. I really have no words to describe this movie. It was too... up to be good. But too real to be bad.The relationship between Drew and his father was beautifully demented and hard to watch and throughout the movie you just ended up feeling sorry for everyone. The best part was the chemistry between Scott and Mia Kirshner. Other than that I would recommend this movie only to fans of either one of them. On the plus side, Scott Caan hasn't looked this hot in a wife beater since Varsity Blues.

OK... so my initial interest was prurient. Scott Caan in various stages of undress.... I'm there! This movie has much more to recommend it than fleeting moments of eye candy. Caan's portrayal of devoted son trying to make the most of a bad situation. The internal conflict over what's right vs. what's necessary is clear, but not melodramatically dwelled upon. Anguish doesn't need to be torturous.

This movie deserves much more attention than it received when it was released.

What I felt most touching about this movie was how devoted this son was to his father. And the director didn't pretty anything up. He shows the son actually changing his father's diapers and you see everything! It just makes the situation all the more real. And the son deals with the stress of this by turning to drugs and alcohol which is understandable. The ending is shocking and heartbreaking. It's a very good movie.

"Speed of Life" is an independent film that is incredibly under the radar, even for an indie movie. I'm surprised that a moivel ike this didn't get a lot more publicity than it did, because it is a really really great and powerful movie. It stars Scott Caan as Drew, an ex-heroin addict and college dropout who spends his time caring for his invalid father (Leo Burmeister, who's really good). Then Drew meets Sarah (Mia Kirshiner) and his world is turned upside down. As Sarah draws Drew back into his old habits and Drew's friend Satan enters the picture, the movie progresses to a final shocking climax. In many ways, although this isn't a movie I should compare it to, this movie is like "The Brown Bunny". Except with that film, the end gave the film purpose. In this movie, the end just shocks us. The movie, for the first half, basically plays the same way. Nothing incredibly exciting happens. I'm going to keep this short, but Caan, Kirshiner, and Burmeister are incredible and if you have somehow stumbled onto the movie...Do not hesitate, see it.

GRADE: A-

I've been a huge admirer of Scott Caan ever since I first saw him on the big screen. The son of the great James Caan, his pedigree may well be taken care of, but he still had a lot to therein live up to. And he did so in an amazing list of acting jobs that include 'Gone In 60 Seconds,' `Novocaine,' `Varsity Blues' and even the cheesy 'American Outlaws' and 'Ready To Rumble'. In 'Speed of Life' Caan is the central character that takes care of his `fast-fading' father in much the same way a new mother would take care of her newborn. Finally pushed to levels he never realized he could feel, Drew (Caan) turns to drugs to relax, but ends up losing his job, his common sense and finally his judgement. That all said, it's Leo Burmester's ('The Abyss,' `The Neon Bible') role as Caan's relapsed father that steals the show and the heart strings well before the tortured end.

I thought this was a very good movie. It shows you the strong bond and love between a father and son and the son's struggles to take care of his father while working and going to school.

Synposis: Written and directed by Robert Smith (aka Rob Smith), 'Speed of Life,' also billed sometimes as 'Saturn,' showcases a piece of a young man's life as he tries to work his way through school, fix motorcycles to keep money coming in and take care of his father - a man who can no longer take care of himself. Desperate for income, Drew does things he shouldn't to make ends meet and ultimately when things become too much, makes a desperate decision.

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In the very first frame, this movie slaps you across the face, demanding you pay attention.

You hear a shower running. You hear a 23-year old Scott Caan's voice asking his father if he knows a song called 'Hitler's C*ck.'

Then, because it doesn't think you're paying enough attention yet, the film slaps you again by giving you head-to-toe naked co-stars Scott Caan (Drew) and Leo Burmester (his father, Fred) in the shower together.

Talk about a wake-up call.

From there on in, you know to pay attention.

While this is definitely a role I'm not surprised to see Mr. Caan in, because the character is just different enough from the ones he portrayed in movies like Dallas 362 and A Boy Called Hate, it's fairly typical for Caan in the way I've become familiar with after number of his movies I've seen.

Drew is a working-class young man trying to get himself through college, but who's also one to enjoy getting wasted and trashed when he feels like it. But there's an incredibly soft, tender side of Drew when he's with his father who, after his mother's death, became so ill he's completely dependent upon Drew to take care of him.

Hence the opening shower scene. Drew's dad can't dress himself, feed himself, clean himself, go to the bathroom, nothing. Drew even has to change his adult diapers and you know what? Been there, done that. So I could identify with both the indignity of the situation (especially for the father) and the way it made Drew feel.

Feelings that Caan projected through the screen like his entire body was screaming them at you.

A chance meeting on the street brings Sarah into Drew's life, drawing her into his tiny sphere where getting high, getting drunk and trying to make enough money to both stay in school and keep his father's motorcycle repair business going takes Drew into places he really should not be going.

While I will not under any circumstances spoil some very pivotal scenes later in the movie, I will tell you that once again, this film delivered a sucker punch I did not see coming. It's one of those things where you tell yourself, even if you start to see the signs of an event coming, that there's absolutely no way it'll happen.

Well, it does, and I guess what I've come to realize after viewing (for the second time) what is now my sixth Scott Caan movie, is that if it doesn't deliver something that makes you sit up and take notice, then you're not watching a Scott Caan movie.

Speed of Life is raw, gritty and real. It pulls no punches (as my description of the opening scene makes pretty clear) and neither apologizes for nor condemns the debauchery - and yet simplistic beauty - of these painfully real characters.

Maybe I would've done what Drew does. Maybe I wouldn't have. The point is this movie makes you think. If you can handle real urban life and not wimp out when you see Drew stuff the barrel of a gun into a guy's mouth, or snort cocaine until he's almost completely incapable of functioning, then you'll be glad you took the time to see the movie.