Pups focuses on US gun culture
Pups is an honest, in-your-face story of how two Los Angeles 13-year-olds get a tragic first-hand taste of America’s gun culture.
The film starts with young Stevie (Cameron Van Hoy) videotaping a fake suicide message for his mother, who’s out of town on a business trip.
Then he finds a loaded gun in a cupboard and tries to impress his girlfriend Rocky (Mischa Barton) with his new toy.
When the gun goes off accidentally, instead of heeding the warning, the Bonnie and Clyde pair decide to take it to school with them. Along the way Stevie decides to show off his new toy at the local bank, and so begins the misguided pairs’ nightmare.
Enter Burt Reynolds, who plays FBI negotiator Daniel Bender.
Surprisingly, instead of using the usual psychological tricks to persuade the pair to give up, he resorts to insults, threat and bad language over the phone. Any parent will tell you that doesn’t work.
Both Van Hoy and Barton play their characters with the kind of freedom that’s only stifled with age.
Drama, 18. ***
