A.J. EdwardsAge Out

This movie only flew under my radar because I'm a huge Ty Sheridan fan and I want to follow his career because I think he has amazing talent. I was also excited to see that Brett Butler is in this (if only briefly) because i loved Grace Under Fire back in the day. I was excited to see Jeffery Wright as well, but there is really nothing to his character at all, which was a huge disappointment.For the first hour of this film, I had very little clue what the hell was going on. The editing and storytelling style was so choppy and disjointed that following the story was difficult, confusing and distracting. One minute, the character is lugging an old mattress to a apartment he's just leased, then he's on the phone in a kitchen that looks unfamiliar because no establishing shots were made when he first leased the apartment, and then suddenly he's showering at a public facility and sitting on a bed in a room with at least one other bed. So... yeah. I was completely lost.The whole first two acts of the movie are like that. The exposition between scenes is non-existent, so following the flow of the story is impossible. The character will be in one place, then he's suddenly, joltingly in another place and the viewer has no idea why. One minute, he's meeting this guy named Swim for the first time, someone that seems to know quite a bit about him. Ten minutes later, they're apparently besties?Also frustratingly distracting is that the aspect ratio was in full frame, as one square on my widescreen TV. In reviews for this film on IMDB (yeah, as the movie was playing, I got bored and went there to read reviews to see if I was just misunderstanding the point of the movie) some people praised the cinematography as amazing and gorgeous but I have no idea what they were talking about because you can't see much of anything in the smaller frame. The film does go to widescreen for about ten minutes, but I have no idea why. Those scenes were beautiful, I guess, but I just wanted to movie to be over by that point. The director tried to do these panning shots between characters in rare moments of dialogue, but in full frame, it just felt like the camera was trying too hard to catch the action; again, this just distracted me from the story.I suppose the disjointed storytelling and sloppy (at least for me) editing, and full frame aspect ration were stylistic choices, but I'll be damned if I can tell you why. They literally had nothing to do with the story, as far as I could tell. At the very beginning of the movie, several foster kids are interviewed about their lives and this was the only part of the first hour I found even remotely interesting, but the movie isn't about this, so why are those interviews there? Is it to give you an idea about the main character's past? Why not accomplish that through dialogue involving Richie, rather than setting up one style of film and then jolting the audience into another one?Eventually, a story did start to form, again around the one hour mark. Once pieces started coming together, the story could have been interesting, but for all the dragging the movie did that first hour, it didn't give the audience much information about side characters, and barely anything about the main character, so I literally felt no emotional connection to any of them. I felt like I'd been given poorly edited snapshots of their lives and that was it. So when the emotional aspect of the story finally starts to emerge in the third act, my reaction was, "Oh. Huh. Okay...." The scene at the end was really great, but it's like this insanely emotional scene that has NO impact because the audience has so little connection to these characters.This had the potential to be an amazing movie because the story, had it been told correctly and not disjointedly, confusingly and distractingly, could have had an engaging, thought provoking impact on the audience. Instead, I think people will come away with this film more annoyed than anything, and dismayed that the potential for such an outstanding story was ruined because of stylistic choices that made no sense and only hindered the story, rather than aiding it.The performances were amazing, when the characters were actually given some kind of development, but those moments were short and rare. This could have been a great cat and mouse story, but the detective is only there when the story needed some explaining, which was a LOT because the story was so poorly told. Great performances, horrible filmmaking was my takeaway from this.

But so good. Tye Sheridan and Imogin Poots shine in this movie. So sad and very depressing as it is it was a sensational story and directed so well and the writing and the dialog is awesome. I also have to mention Caleb Landry Jones as Tye"s drug addled friend is excellent. This is the story of a young man who ages out of the system and has to make a go on his own....with no help at all. It is so sad how hard he tries but circumstances never seem to go his way. try as he might, nothing good happens for him and it is very sad and sobering. These young men and women deserve a chance. I really recommend this one. Tye Sheridan is an astounding talent.

First of all, the amazon users who complained about the "sloppy" camera work/editing were completely wrong. The film has an intuitive visual style, but is meticulously assembled in the editing room. It must have taken a huge amount of work. This new, exciting style arguably originated with the Terrence Malick films of the 2010s; _Age Out_ director A.J. Edwards served as one of the editors and camera operators of many of those films and probably contributed substantially to it. Unfortunately the art-house critics dropped the ball on this development (many of them are obsessed with the boring static-camera dogma of the 2000s to this day). Edwards has a marvelous eye for locations, turning outdoor found-objects into evocative props. Speaking of Malick: Tye Sheridan got his acting debut in _The Tree of Life_, I believe, and Imogen Poots was the most memorable actress in _Knight of Cups_! _Knight_ featured a galaxy of stars and famous actresses, but she stood out like a unicorn, impossibly enigmatic and sophisticated. Malick's films require improvisation and input from the actors and really separate the wheat from the chaff; Poots is no classical beauty, but what an intellligent actor! If you like this film you may want to catch Edwards' _The Better Angel_ about Abraham Lincoln's childhood, too. Brit Marling is particularly good there.

How often are there stories in the news of horrible criminal acts; like as not they provoke antipathy.Often though there might be a view of what happened that goes in the other direction; encourages us to reserve our hatred and loathing for our own regretted selves rather than hang them on someone we know little of.The social justice warriors perhaps identify certain circumstances which permit going easy in selected cases.I think people in general won't admit to worshipping idols, but that in fact is what helps us cling to the world without, whereas we have been told the kingdom is within us.The minimum benefit might be that, if we are willing to pay the price, we can live life as well as it can be.Here's art pointing us in that direction.

I did not find this sad & depressing like most reviews. For me the events that happened are part of the real world. It's like when someone we care for dies. It is sad, but everyone of us will die some day. Not everyone gets a fair chance in life. For some people, they got dealt a bad hand. It may be sad, but what happened to the characters in this film happens to people every day. All we each can do is make the best of what life gives us instead of feeling sorry for ourselves. The acting in this film was top notch. This is not a hallmark film. Instead of making me depressed, this film makes me more sensitive & compassionate for people like Richie. We can all use a reminder that there are many in pain.

Troubled youth is released from juvie without direction, support or a family. Although he possesses many redeeming qualities his future is in question. Outstanding performance by Tye Sheridan in starring role. Wonderful Indie film.

Very hard to follow. Turned it off half way through. Don't waste your time.

wish the story would have gone into greater depth about his past, but all in all very well done, great photography, acting, script, etc.

Even though this film will only appeal to a minority, it has my highest respect. None of the usual product placement, totally lacking in sensationalism, it was clearly made with a purity of heart. It is about what happens to some foster kids when they have to fend for themselves on the streets when they reach a certain age. Well worth it for those with a social conscience.