Alpha Dog

Nick Cassavetes started from a real case, changed the names and split the telling in two. One strand is straight drama; the other a documentary costume that keeps date and time on screen and freezes to name, one by one, bystanders later called as witnesses. Variety’s Sundance review adds mock documentary footage and occasional split screen, reading it all as an effort to authenticate a crowded story. The boy staying put is the knot of the script, not an oversight: on two nights Frankie plainly tells him to go, and twice he chooses to stay. The closing interview uses the same mock documentary register, with Sharon Stone put into a fat suit. The film closed the 2006 Sundance festival but reached American screens a year later. New Line, which had released Cassavetes’ John Q. and The Notebook, was first in line; when it planned only a limited run, Universal took over. The 9.5 million dollar production opened at number seven and took 32 million worldwide over six weeks. A good fit if you want Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Ben Foster and Anton Yelchin side by side at the same early stage of their careers. Not for viewers who will read the dates, times and witness cards as a pushy bid for authenticity rather than a way in.