Edge City
Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: B Film: B
Eugene Martin's indie film
Edge City is based on the real life beating and death of Eddie Polleck,
who fell victim to useless angst filled teenagers in a Philadelphia city line
area. It all begins when a simple rumor
is twisted around and two New Jersey girls have Coke thrown onto them by three
Philadelphia area kids. As they tell
people about it, this minor incident turns into a rape story, which eventually
boils down to an unforgettable ending.
Edge City is a well-made picture despite its flaws. It manages to control the young cast and
make good use of the minor characters involved. It is far superior to Larry Clark's overrated 1994 picture Kids. The problem with Clark’s film is that the
life of a few teenagers is shown in a 24-hour period showing all the drugs,
sex, and craziness that occur in their lives.
While all these incidents may occur on a regular basis for some kids the
problem is not that they are doing these things, but rather that no solution is
given in order to solve anything. Clark
basically just puts everything out before us and parades his characters around,
but shows no change.
Edge City on the other hand, establishes the characters and brings them
to life in a way that few smaller films do.
The characters change and we see reconciliation. There never needs to be an exact solution,
but some sort of change needs to be made and this film pulls that off.
Presented in a 1.85 X 1
transfer there are certain limitations to the look of this film. The transfer tends to be wanting in depth
and color. Darker scenes become too
dark at times, while the grayscale is slightly off. Pixelization is also a problem at times as well. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is much
better than expected, though it yields some minor flaws with its
spatialness.
All in all, a film that
needs to be seen, needs a distributor, and needs a national release. Wake up, you ill-minded Hollywood studios,
and pick this little gem up. It's not perfect,
but it is one of the better indie films of the last few years. The DVD also offers some cool supplements
such as interviews with some of the cast members, which for most of them this
is their first role in a film.
- Nate Goss
