In Clerks 2, a key scene involving Dante and Randal is set with the two riding go karts in a break from the action. Randal replies that it helped reminding him of what it was like when the world was new and the future was bright when they were kids. A few years later, director Marshall Curry returns to Tribeca going from the vicious mayoral race in Newark documented in Street Fight to the world of kids, a need for speed, and aspirations for the future behind the wheel in Racing Dreams.
Meet Annabeth, Josh and Brandon, three kids who come from different backgrounds and compete on the track vying to be the best in their division of the World Karting Association. A national championship lies ahead, the competition gets fierce, who will feel the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat without a drivers license to test their speed.
Through this film, we get to know these kids and their struggles away from the track whether its financially or personally as they go through that very world where the teen years are approaching, growing up is a major factor, and the cost to do what they love looms ahead.
Filmmaker Curry goes into this subject with a lot of energy, a lot of personal pain and a lot of fun in between as each kid goes through the obstacles of what it takes to succeed and move forward in life. For Annabeth, its being the only girl amongst the competition. For Josh, its being the best and seeing how far it can take him and his folks. For Brandon, its dealing with the challenges of a temper, being raised by his grandparents and a few past events in this competition that still hang over (but it doesn't hurt that he's a fan of Days of Thunder!). Through it all, we pull for all three of these kids to go the distance and getting behind the wheel with them and how they develop is worth taking the ride. It balances the fine line in documentaries between struggle and success and entertains and educates at the same time
Overall, this viewer never knew this world existed in competition for kids and was intrigued that some NASCAR drivers started in this, which is motivation for all three kids to shoot for in the future and the pace is involving all the way along with being visually stunning with all the designs of the lettering and the cars. After seeing this superb piece from beginning to end, it boggled my curiosity if there was a division for adults. If there is, consider this viewer interested in joining! Racing Dreams goes on full speed ahead and flows on high octane.
The days of the solid horror movie show hints in the last few years and some have succeeded and some have fallen fast. In House of the Devil, the premise of being left home alone to be the house watcher comes into the mix and through the opening credits and a few minutes after, it looked like this would be an entry into that former category.
A college student answers a call, the night is set and the couple leave with a mother upstairs that hardly comes out to be watched after, but theres a feel of evil in the house and the watcher doesn't know whether she's imagining the horror or dealing with a gruesome reality that lurks within.
With talent like Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov and a few unknowns that there would be room for another satisfactory entry, but despite a great use of an eighties song from The Fixx and a last third that goes all over the place, its not enough that the film puts the viewer to sleep in the middle and by the time we get to the real scares, its too late to recover the interest that one would hope for in such a film as it tacks on familiar territory without adding anything new to the mix.
There is always hope in the future for more satisfactory horror and House of the Devil is motivation that a better horror film can be made as it shows what not to do.
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