Raindance: A NIGHT TOO YOUNG

Very disturbing thriller-drama, and the great thing about a Film Fest is that the filmmakers were there after the showing to explain the genesis of the project. The original script was a standard coming of age story about two boys, and the director decided it might be interesting to subvert that genre by adding some adults to corrupt them. The result is a very creepy movie.

New Years Eve - two 12 year old boys are sleeding and watching fireworks and talking about girls and trying to figure out how sex might work (though, it sounds unlikely to one of the kids - a boy puts his thing *there*? Is sex about peeing?) When a pair of men and an attractive woman approach them and ask if they will run an errand for them. The attractive woman does the asking - will they go to the corner pub/liquor store and buy a liter of vodka? When the boys say they are too young, she asks one his mother’s name, then write a note from his mom saying she is buying the vodka for her. Then she gives the boys her apartment number and some money and walks away with the two men.

The two boys find they can’t buy the vodka with the note, but find a man who will buy for them as long as he gets a couple of drinks out of it. The two boys go back to the apartment and the attractive woman invites them inside. The boys think they might see some boobie and stick around. They kind of get more than they bargained for - the husband of the attractive woman wants her to sleep with his pal - and she’s not that interested... but maybe if she is drunk enough? One of the boys chugs a glass of vodka - and then begins projectile vomiting. Now the two kids are forced to stay - while the boy’s clothes are washed. As the adults play their games - the tension rises because there are two *kids* present. Oh, did I mention that the husband’s pal is a little crazy and torched a house not so long ago? And that they play the music so loud that a policeman comes... and the attractive woman invites him to stay for coffee even though they have basically kidnaped the two boys and there are all kinds of kinky sex games going on just under the surface?



A lot of tension is built, but the next morning the two boys are sent back to their mothers and the adults go on with their twisted lives. Parts of this film reminded me of a Curtis Harrington film called GAMES with a very young James Caan who plays mind games with his wife Katherine Ross... and when they add a strange neighbor Simon Signoret, the games may include murder. In NIGHT TOO YOUNG there is no murder - but no shortage of games that may turn violent at any moment. The two boys have a life altering event... but not in the usual coming of age movie way.

- Bill