Fierce People

Funny, quirky movie. Btw: the summary is wrong. It's about a mother and a boy (who's father is an anthropologist in South America), staying at a rich friend's place for the summer. Both get involved in this 'upper class' scene, which has some surprising twists and turns.

Uneven film starts as a patchy oddball comedy, before awkwardly morphing into a surprisingly dark drama, where it becomes far more successful, thanks largely to the efforts of a terrific cast (Sutherland, Lane and Yelchin are particularly good). The film can't shake off a peculiar lack of focus and point to its story, and a choppiness in its midsection which makes some plot points difficult to understand, but overall it remains compelling and endearing.

"Structured around the type of analogy that makes one pine for total sensory failure, a desire amplified by the filmmakers' clear self-satisfaction with what they believe to be a clever narrative conceit." - Nick Schager

Just another failed attempt at creativity and greatness.

Just another oh this is original it must be good! The only good part was the romance between the kid and the two girls.

Ill-conceived, ill-informed, and misguided. The structure and tone of the film are inconsistent: the first half is light-hearted, the second half, surprisingly dark. There is not a professional anthropologist on earth who would defend the assumptions on which the film is based: no, the upper class of New Jersey cannot usefully be viewed as a "tribe"; no, "primitive tribes", whether in New Jersey or Brazil, are not inevitably violent.

Kind of a hidden gem. Definitely underrated.

foul language and approves immoral sex

Starts as a decent drama but turns into a shitfest in the end.

Average film on a rich, dysfunctional family, saved by a twist at the end.