Stoic (2009)

Director:

Uwe Boll

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A heated game of poker causes three men incarcerated for nonviolent offenses to brutalize their cellmate before taking drastic measures in order to cover up their crime. |

Plot Keywords:

Vomit | Forced To Drink | Poker Game | Psychological Abuse | Broomstick

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Edward Furlong	...	Harry Katish
Shaun Sipos	...	Mitch Palmer
Sam Levinson	...	Peter Thompson
Steffen Mennekes	...	Jack Ulrich
Jamie Switch	...	Guard #3
Michael Teigen	...	Guard #4
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Reese Alexander	...	Guard
Daniel Boileau	...	Guard

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:18 | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

KSM Film

Could the Boll Haters start dropping it now?

I won't go into discussing previous Boll Movies because it won't help talking about Stoic for its completely different at least from the trash I've seen by Boll. Stoic is a pretty straight movie about 4 guys in a prison cell and the dark automatics that group dynamics can take. The movie is pretty slow which makes sense because it follows all the little steps that lead to a giant disaster. It focuses on the 3 guys torturing their cell mates beginning with macho humiliation games that turn into a murder masked as a suicide. The visuals are gritty and the atmosphere is dark and kind of nihilistic, yet this movie is based on a true recent case in which the convicts were just around 20 years old. Stoic is no masterpiece, sure but its a movie that serves its purpose... the acting is believable, the inter-cut interview sequences with the depicted real events work, the atmosphere is cold and realistic in that the motivation by fear is pretty obvious for all involved. There are now winners here but luckily the picture painted is not black and white but a dark gray. I hate when cases like this one are put aside with the bare argument that the killers were "animals" or something like that because it almost never is simple like that. I like movies like Stoic for forcing the viewer to look at a side of humanity that is dormant in all of us until we are dropped into situations like the one depicted here and who knows if you or me wouldn't do things we can't think of now when fear messes up our rationality.

I think the possibilities of group dynamics were depicted in a raw and realistic way... kind of reminded me of the bleak outcome in "Eden Lake". And in that it made me think after the credits rolled it sure was a good movie. I can understand if some people consider it too slow or too exploitative, yet I wouldn't say that myself. But a rating of 3 points with most reviews positive seems to finally prove that a lot of people really just hate Boll whatever he does. Up to now I saw no reason to argue for Boll but with this film I do since it is definitely far better than Bolls previous outputs.