MovieChat Forums > Alpha Dog (2007) Discussion > Had trouble relating to the characters.

Had trouble relating to the characters.

posted 7 years ago by brutuslignarius
2 replies | jump to latest

Were these well-off suburban kids cosplaying as gangsters? I've known a few, but none to the extreme of this level. That was the first problem.

Secondly, the relationship these kids had with their parents. Truelove selling weed with his dad? Frankie tending his dad's weed plants and meeting the two hookers his dad is having a 3some with? Keith asking his mom (or his girlfriend's mom), if she and her husband were going to have "a little sex" on their anniversary, and then making thrusting moves at her? Then Susan's mom telling her "one night is all I ask for to make love to your father. I'm ex-ing right now"? Seriously, what the hell? The weirdest scene was when Jake and his girlfriend were having sex, when Zack showed up, and Jake's girlfriend just walked out naked to give a hug to Zack.

I barely know anyone, but I especially know NOONE from the socio-economic class portrayed in this film, that is, firstly, prone to violent crime at the drop of a hat, like Truelove and Jake were (pulling guns, etc.), and secondly, speaks openly with their parents about having sex and doing drugs.

Is it just a West Coast thing, these attitudes?

Sorry if I am not one of the trendy, hip cool kids, but this whole subculture was totally alien to me.

[–] rcrangers7 7 years ago

It's a suburban rich kid thing. I live in SI, NY and kids and parents actually act like this over here. It's pretty sad. Mostly rich Italians who think they're thugs/gangster because they listen to Wu Tang and Eminem.

Good movie though.

[–] jakemon45 (971) 6 years ago

They are all bored upper class kids with plenty of their parents' money to throw into whatever lifestyle they choose. Just so happens they idolized the gangsters and drug dealers, and one of them had the connection to really dive into that lifestyle. They all live in their own little world, with no sense of how the real world works. I'm sure they all have gotten into small amounts of trouble in the past, but mommy and daddy's money always kept them out of real trouble so they had no idea there would ever be real consequences for the shit they pull. They were just posers. Just look at the scene when Jake breaks in to Johnny's house. The man shits on his carpet and even though he has a gun he just cowers in the corner and then lies to his friends saying he wasn't home at the time so they wouldn't question him why he didn't take action. Not so badass. And he could have just shot Zack himself but instead he pushed it off onto his friends. So while he WAS living the life, he was a poser all along.