Josh and S.A.M.

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Michael, Ichina, Naomi

This film is incredibly hard to come by. It's so brilliant though, the tone of it feels more like a Sam Mendes movie. Actually that's probably the cool Thomas Newman score talking but it has this strange feeling about it I just love. It's essentially a kids running away from home road trip with the added bonus that thanks to a heap of lies his brother told him, Sam, the younger brother believes he is a mutant cyborg they are going to send to war in Africa so he needs to escape to Canada.

They get up to some really crazy and screwed up stuff that you would not find in kids films today in a million years. I'm talking breaking into a house, knocking a guy out, stealing his car kind of stuff. Maybe that's why it's so hard to find.

But what makes it so great is at the heart of it all these kids are dealing with very real problems in their family and the film doesn't soft pedal any of this. The kids in the film actually manage to handle the drama required form them too.

I think this film is something very special. If I had seen this as a kid I know it would have been one of my all time favourites. It doesn't feel like any other kids film I can think of and never speaks down to its audience. It's a real shame this only seems to exist on VHS somewhere overseas. If this ever gets a DVD release or you can get hold of it, firstly, let me know, secondly watch it immediately, it's truly a lost gem. Oh and very young Jake Gyllenhaal is funny.