Mallboy

I become suspicious when a film is described as being "important". Important to whom? Is it going to change my life? Or the world? When I sat down to watch "Mallboy", I was wide awake. When it was over, I was half asleep. I found it neither important nor entertaining. It bored me senseless. It wanted to be controversial and meaningful, but in the process of wanting to be, it forgot to be involving. The story of 14-year-old Shaun and his dysfunctional family is a story we've all seen before, so the trick for the filmmaker is to present it from a fresh perspective. Rowan Woods' "The Boys" tackled material similar to "Mallboy" and did it brilliantly. "Mallboy" fails because it doesn't engage the viewer. It's also dull. It has no shading. It's one of the dullest things I've ever seen, actally. Comparisons to "Kids", "Bully" and "Ken Park" are fanciful.