Mean Creek
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| Mean Creek | |
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| Directed by | Jacob Aaron Estes |
| Produced by | Susan Johnson Rick Rosenthal Hagai Shaham |
| Written by | Jacob Aaron Estes |
| Starring | Rory Culkin Ryan Kelley Scott Mechlowicz Trevor Morgan Josh Peck Carly Schroeder |
| Music by | Ethan Gold Gretchen Lieberum tomandandy |
| Distributed by | Paramount Classics Focus Features (outside USA) |
| Release date(s) | August 20, 2004 (NY/LA) |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $500,000 US |
| IMDb profile | |
Mean Creek is a 2004 independent film directed by Jacob Aaron Estes starring Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan, Josh Peck and Carly Schroeder. It was released to wide critical praise.[1]
Tagline: Beneath the surface, everyone has a secret.
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[edit] Plot
The setting of the movie is a small town in Oregon. small and shy Sam (Rory Culkin) admits to his older brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan) that the school bully, George (Josh Peck) has pummeled him, and not for the first time. In fact, Sam seems to be George's favorite to pick on and bully almost daily.
Rocky, being a mostly peaceful guy who likes to do drugs and laze around, decides along with Sam and his two friends a peaceful, yet powerful prank to get revenge. Rocky's two friends are Clyde (Ryan Kelley), a shy, also peaceful teenager, embarrassed by harassment of his gay fathers by Marty (Scott Mechlowicz), the other friend. Rocky is outgoing, but Marty may go over the top. He is an angry and violent boy, shown in one of the first few scenes shooting at bottles and calling them names of real people, only to be physically bullied by his older brother at their trailer, for mentioning his dad, who we can only assume is not around and did not have a good fate.
The boys decide to take George on a trip boating for a "birthday" party for Sam and to then get him to strip naked playing truth or dare, then proceed to make him run home naked.
On the car drive there, Marty is drinking as he drives. George says that his mother has asked him not to drive in a car with drunk drivers. To this, Marty responds with obvious sarcasm, saying that his mother has given him permission to drink and drive. George, not picking up on the sarcasm, comments saying that Marty's mom must be pretty dumb for "letting him drive inebriated." Marty quickly responds back, hitting at a week point of George's, saying "my mother is dumb. She has a learning disability." Marty obviously knows George has a learning disability and this sets the tone for the rest of the movie, George trying to fit in with everyone and everyone being semi-polite back, but Marty being outwardly rude and mean to George, despite George's repetitive attempts to be his friend.
Sam invites his friend and semi romantic interest Millie (Carly Schroeder) along, although he does not tell her what they are going to do until they are on their way. Millie refuses to continue until Sam promises him and his brother will call it off, which Sam agrees to do. Sam tells his brother to stop, and Rocky, being respectful of his brothers wishes brings it to his friends. Clyde has no problem with it, but Marty, enjoying others suffering, refuses to give up. They start the ride on the boat and are playing truth or dare. Through a chain of events, George shoots Marty in the testicles with a water gun. This does not hurt Marty and he is only somewhat irritated at George, telling him to stop. The others find it funny, in fact they find George funny all around, realizing he is just a lonely, misunderstood, sensitive, and bright young boy. George, in a humorous moment with the others after shooting Marty, makes a funny quip about his father, not remembering what has happened to his father. This sets Marty off, even more irate that anyone would talk about his father, although still not telling what has happened to him. In an intent on revenge, Marty tells George the whole plan and trick and starts to ridicule him.
George becomes irate, yelling at everyone and using offensive, vulgar, and deeply hurtful words to attack and get back at all of them. Last, George goes after Marty, obviously deeply hurt and in turmoil. George uses the most hurtful subject he can think of and reveals why Marty is so upset over his father. George reveals that Marty's dad was an alcoholic who committed suicide by shooting himself in the head and according to George "blowing his brains all over the wall." George repeats and repeats this phrase in a sort of chant, until, trying to separate Marty and George, Rocky knocks George off of the boat. To everybody's surprise, George cannot swim and flounders, yelling "help me!" repeated. All the children do is watch. The film does not reveal why they did not save him, so we must assume. Was it out of anger and vengeance? Was it out of disbelief and surreality? Was it out of fear?
Finally George accidentally hits his head with his video camera that he takes everywhere and goes underwater. Taking this as the final chance to save him, Rocky dives under, but comes up with no sign of George. They go to shore and only minutes later find George washed up, dead on shore.
The children are terrified, and in a panicked attempt to save themselves, they go with Marty's advice (Marty seeming the calmest and most collected of all of them, showing no sorrow) to bury George and then deal with the only witnesses that know they were with George, Marty's brother and a friend of Marty's brother(the group tricked George into not telling his mom where he was going, so she wouldn't know they played the prank on him). Marty takes care of his brother and friend, both being fairly easy to convince and tell the situation to. He may not seem like it, but Marty's brother seems to care in some odd way for Marty.
Marty goes to tell the good news to the friends, who are all at Sam and Rocky's house, but arrives only to find that the group had discussed the situation and decided to turn themselves in. They seem to all be willing to accept the consequence, so long as they do not have the guilt of George's death hanging over their heads. Marty however, refuses to turn himself in, getting angry with all of them and telling Rocky that he "sucks." He storms out and convinces his brother to give him his gun and car. The brother again, agrees to the favor, probably thinking that he is helping Marty. Marty robs a gas station with the gun and drives off, to become a fugitive of the law.
Meanwhile, the others all go to George's house and confess to his mother. The film does not say what happens to the kids or what their consequence is, yet it doesn't matter much, leaving it up to the watcher's imagination.
The film ends, showing a tape George made of himself talking on his video camera. It shows even more deeply how George did care for people and only wanted to fit in. He was a sensitive boy, just wanting friends and somebody to love and to love him. It is a sad, but appropriate note for the movie to end on.
[edit] Trivia
- The names that Marty says during shooting practice are all names of various cast and crew members.
- In the truth or dare scene, when asked about his fantasy, Rocky says he has fantasized about a girl named Susan Johnson. One of the producers of the film is named Susan Johnson.
- When Rory Culkin tries to coax Trevor Morgan to call off the prank, Josh Peck's character interrupts him and then scratches his head. Scratching his head was actually supposed to be Scott Mechlowicz's cue to say his line.
- In the same scene, a crew boat can be seen on the left side of the screen.
- When Rocky jumps into the water to save George, a glimpse of a blue wetsuit under Rocky's t-shirt is slightly shown. Josh Peck, who played George in the film, was also wearing a wetsuit under his long sleeve shirt, due to the fact that the water temperature was 9°C (49°F)
- In the scene where George gives Sam his birthday present, a reflection of the back-up wrapped present can be seen in one of the rear view windows of the car.
- When Sam is about to kiss Mille, he looks at the director for info of what to do.
- When Sam kept laughing on the boat, that was not supposed to happen. Culkin could not control it so they had the movie like that.
- Mean Creek is mentioned by Zach Galifianakis in The Comedians of Comedy documentary.
- A police man shown at the police office was named in the credits, "Handsome Police Man".
- Scott Mechlowicz did not actually pull down his pants during the "truth or dare" scene on the boat. It is revealed during the DVD commentary that a "stunt butt" was used for that particular scene.
- Mean Creek is kind of similar to the 2001 movie, Bully (film), Mean Creek wasn't based on a true story.
- It was never mentioned if George had a father.
[edit] Quotes
George - "I know it's your birthday Sam, but shut your trap!"
George - "He blew his brains all over the wall!"
Millie - "F_ _ _ you! F_ _ _ you!"
Millie - "Wake up! Wake up!"
George - "I told you not to touch my f_ _ _ _ _ _ camera Sam!"
Marty - "Well, everyone's a vagina!"
Marty - "Because everything happens for a reason, Rock. I don't know"
Millie: Do you believe in God?
[edit] References
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Rotten Tomatoes' Mean Creek Reviews. rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved on October 26, 2007.
