TEN THOUSAND SAINTS – The Review

It was the hair, at first I thought I would hate this movie because of the kid’s hair.  Allow me to explain, Jude is one messed up teenager (aren’t all teenagers messed up in the movies?)  At the very start we see his Father and Mother break up.  His Father,( Ethan Hawke: Gattaca), likes to grow marijuana in his green house, and that is where he sleeps when Mom kicks him out of the house.  Jude’s Father, Les, explains to young Jude,( Henry Keleman,) exactly what happened and how that will impact the future story.

Fast forward a few years and Jude, now played by Asa Butterfield, is a young man with troubles.  He and his best friend,( apparently his only friend,) Teddy (Avan Jogia) like to get high and listen to Hard Core Punk Rock. Through the early part of the movie Jude has one of those locks of hair hanging right in his face, hanging limp between his eyes.  Never thought I would be so old as to say this but that hair is really annoying, no character in the movie asks him about the hair hanging in his face, and he never brushes it out of the way.

Seriously, I felt a lot better about Jude when about halfway through TEN THOUSAND SAINTS he cuts that lock of hair off and has pretty much a normal haircut.  But well before that I came to really love this movie.  Jude’s Father, Les, so very well played by Ethan Hawke (more or less playing the same type of messed up Father he did in Boyhood) is real big on marijuana.  He is also a surrogate Father to Eliza (Hailee Steinfeld, so damn good in True Grit!) who comes to Vermont to spend a weekend with Les’ ex wife, and Jude’s Mother, Harriet (Julianne Nicholson: August Osage County).

A whole lot happens on that cold weekend, Eliza, Jude and Teddy go to a party, get high, Jude gets beaten up, and Teddy loses his virginity to Eliza.  Naturally Eliza gets pregnant, and then it really gets complicated.  In what seems like a predestined event Jude and Teddy huff Freon taken out of an air conditioner.  (These kids have so little access to marijuana they huff paint thinner!)  The Freon, of course is a bad idea.  Both of them pass out, Teddy dies.  The title comes from a Bible passage spoken by the Minister at Teddy’s funeral.

Eliza goes back to her Mother Diane, Les’ girl friend (Emily Mortimer: Hugo, City Island, Shutter Island) in New York City.  Jude also goes to New York to live with Les, who tries his best to be a good Father, but a professional pot farmer is not such a good role model.   Teddy has an older half brother Johnny (Emile Hirsch: Milk, Speed Racer) who has gone straight edge, that is no drugs, no sex, healthy diet.  Johnny also plays in a seriously hard core band, One Man Army.  He is also practicing Hare Krishna.

There is much talk about Jude being adopted, that Johnny and Teddy have different Fathers, that Eliza should give up her baby for adoption.  And there is much talk about families not necessarily being related.  Much like many other movies about teenagers, (Rebel Without a Cause certainly comes to mind,) a surrogate family is formed, with many members, all of whom want to do the right thing for the memory of Teddy, a kid we hardly get to know.

Where do I begin?  TEN THOUSAND SAINTS has the complexity, the frustrations, the confusion, the dead ends, and the new beginnings, of real life.  The relationships are so complex, the characters so well defined and the story so intimate, and real, and raw that you cannot help but be drawn in and feel that you know these people, or maybe you are, or were, these people.

The setting of New York City when hard core punk was happening, when homeless people were being chased out of Washington Square Park,  when kids were doing anything to get high, and often paying the consequences, all of this is so well defined, and quite obviously on a low budget, you cannot help but be impressed.

I don’t want to give away too much plot but Johnny wants to do a seriously right thing and marry Eliza, even though we learn he is not really oriented that way.  Of course it’s Jude who really loves her and tries his best to do the right thing as well.

TEN THOUSAND SAINTS is a true ensemble, with every character indelible, and true and memorable.  Every actor gets moments, many moments, to shine.  Against all the odds there is a happy, a very happy ending.  Not ashamed to say it, I wept at the last few minutes of TEN THOUSAND SAINTS, partly from sadness at seeing the story come to an end.  I could spend hours with these characters, this movie could be twice as long, or longer, and I would love every minute.

Based on a novel by Eleanor Henderson, which may be where a lot of the joy and heartfelt emotion comes from, this movie is a treasure.

In a very sweet, odd little moment, when they are just getting to know each other Eliza asks Teddy if he is Indian, because of his eyes.  He says yes “but Gandhi, not Geronimo.”  There are dozens of moments like that, all through TEN THOUSAND SAINTS.  This is one of those movies, many are being made now, that deserves to be widely distributed in theaters, but likely will not.  Movies that are character driven, that tell a story, that have something valid and real and honest and sincere to say about the human condition, don’t seem to stand a chance to be shown in multiplex theaters anymore. And we are all the more impoverished as a culture because of that.

I have to give TEN THOUSAND SAINTS Five out of Five stars, this movie is a masterpiece.  I sincerely would like to see more work from Shari Springer Burman and Robert Pulcini.  They have done good work before, such as American Splendor and Cinema Verite’.

Did I mention that TEN THOUSAND SAINTS is also funny?  Very, very funny at times.  And the music flat kicks ass!

TEN THOUSAND SAINTS opens in theaters, On Demand and iTunes August 14th