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Cast: William Atherton,Gil Bellows,James Oliver,Charles Napier
A young boy witnesses the brutal murder of his mother during a Brooklyn car-jacking … leaving him to be raised by his alcoholic father (Bill Sage, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, Handsome Harry, 2010 Best Picture-nominee Precious, American Psycho, If Lucy Fell). Now a 17-year-old loner, Sean Donovan (Caleb Steinmeyer, HBO’s True Blood, ABC’s Lost) is relentlessly haunted by his past and obsessed with finding his mother’s killer.
Drawn into a nocturnal urban underworld, Sean’s consuming rage is vented one night, defending himself from a chaotic attack by a drug dealer. Thus begins his life as a quiet, straight-A student by day and a self-appointed hero at night.
But what is a real hero? Who decides what is right or wrong? As the boundaries between justice and vengeance blur, Sean’s dual life wears on his psyche and his two worlds careen dangerously close to colliding.
Sean sits alone during his days at school, He's a loner, quiet and awkward. He spends time at a local gym and evenings at a local Police station, the Chief there feels for Sean so he lets him sit around and look at mugshots to see if he can recognize the person who killed his mother. This all stems from seeing his mother murdered during a car jacking 8 years before. To add to his problems his mother and himself were abused by his alcoholic father who went on to raise Sean alone. He doesn't respect his father and has a suspicion he might of had something to do with his mother's murder. The anger and confusion inside one day gets let loose on a drug dealer and his two thugs, after that night Sean decides to go out and rid the streets of these murderers, drug dealers, pimps and any other scum that might need taken care of.
Once in a very long while a movie comes along that grabs you by the throat, "Boy Wonder" is one of those movies. Right from the start you are drawn into Sean's world, you feel for his loss and you care what happens to this teenager. The film is not really an action film, it's more a crime thriller with some action scenes that are brutal, quick and about as realistic as you are going to see. Realistic is a good word because it not only fits the fight scenes but it pretty much fits the entire story. This is not some flashy superhero movie, this is a revenge thriller with a realistic premise and believable characters. Sean is flawed, He has emotional issues from witnessing his mother being killed and everything about his personality is realistic. To go into details about what happens in the film would be a crime itself because this is one of the best films of the year and it deserves to be seen not told about.
Michael Morrissey has done some production work for TV but this is his first time behind the camera of a feature film and if this is a sign of what's to come then I cannot wait to see what He has coming next. Michael not only wrote and directed the film but he also picked out a terrific cast to play these engaging characters. The stand-out performance here has to be by Caleb Steinmeyer who plays Sean, I have only seen this kind of raw acting talent a few times in the past, this is one of the most powerful performances I have seen in a very long time and I will be keeping my eyes peeled to see what this talented young actor does next. The rest of the cast did a fantastic job as well including Bill Sage as his father, Zulay Henao as Detective Ames who befriends Sean and James Russo who has a small but important role as a criminal. The production values could not be better, the cinematography is flawless, it's both gritty and surreal and fits each and every scene perfectly.
There's really not much more to say about the film, it's a perfect example of how good Independent cinema can be, the film knocked me on my ass and the ending left me sitting here with my mouth wide open. This is a no-brainer, must-own DVD so do yourself a favor and pick this up today, you can thank me later. The DVD comes with Special Features that include:
Making of Boy Wonder Featurette
You can order the DVD HERE.
Released by Inception Media Group
***** Out Of *****