Smoke Bomb Boys
2015 · 10m · USA
Directed by James P. Gannon
Tones: darkly comic, humorous
A gang of 30-something punks behave like they're still 14 — fireworks, name-calling, hands on fire, homemade vehicles cleared over flame. Wes works the grocery store between stunts; Eddie Bombay leads the charge with his silent shadow Gogo.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Punk gang, some fireworks, ya got a movie. Felix respects a film that refuses to wink — the tropes are the text, and the boys are doomed by the calendar.
Silhouette as character development and dirtbag iconography played dead-straight — somewhere between Gummo's grease and a Jackass home movie, with a real formal nerve.
Silhouettes-as-character is a bold formal choice — letting these dirtbags read as movie archetypes instead of documenting them. Music-montage framework sounds like it either soars or stalls, no middle ground.
Reviews
All ya need is a punk gang and some fireworks and ya got a movie