I am Movie Monkey and am a true film addict.
Hope you enjoy my reviews. May contain spoliers
Anthem Of A Teenage Prophet
- Genre: Drama
- Release Date: 11th January 2019
- Director: Robin Hays
- Starring: Cameron Monaghan, Peyton List, Juliette Lewis, Grayson Gabriel, Alex MacNicoll.
Luke is a teenager who enjoys skateboarding and spending time with his friends, particularly his best friend Stan.
During an evening with his school friends smoking cannabis, he has a vision of one them getting run over by a motor vehicle and dying. He's isn't sure which friend was involved but he warns them all that they should be careful the following day.
They laugh at him and just put it down to the drugs, However the next day Stan gets in a traffic accident, as Luke predicted, and sadly dies.
Freaked out by the event, Luke is overheard discussing his premonition with his friends, by a News Journalist at he scene.
He quickly dashes home but is followed by the press, who then proceed to hound him on a daily basis for information.
Other students at school call him 'The Prophet Of Death' and a freak.
He soon has another premonition of his elderly neighbours death. He sees him falling off a ladder in his garden whilst cleaning his guttering so, as to try and prevent his death, Luke offers to complete the job for him instead.
He has an emotional heart to heart with his Mum, played by Juliette Lewis, and she admits to him that her Brother used to have vivid dreams and premonitions too.
Unfortunately Mr Bernoffski, his elderly neighbour, dies anyway after he spots a leaf still in his guttering and goes up his ladder to remove it.
Courtesy of YouTube
Luke starts to bunk off school on a daily basis as he can't face the ridicule and name calling that he receives whilst there.
After some time and deciding that he needs to start socialising again, he invites his friend Fang to a music concert. When they were younger they used to spend a lot of time cliff climbing together but haven't done so recently.
The duo hitchhike to the concert and once there they start to enjoy themselves, dancing along with others and listening to the music.
But it's not long before Fang collapses on the dancefloor. Stan's girlfriend Faith is also at the concert and she helps Luke to get Fang up from the floor and away from the crowd. He starts hyperventilating but they manage to calm him down.
They all decide to call it an early night and Faith offers to drive them home with her.
Whilst on the journey back to their town of Stokum, they are halted on the road by the emergency services who are in attendance to a road accident.
They inform them that the road is blocked and therefore there is no way through so they will not be returning home that night.
They turn the car around and find a motel room for the night. Whilst there, Luke and Faith spend time talking and enjoying each others company.
Back home and whilst both attending a party, Faith asks Luke to the school dance. They share a kiss but she accidentally calls him Stan and he runs off annoyed and hurt.
When he gets home he has an altercation with his Dad, as he is stumbling around drunk. This ends in an emotional embrace between Father and Son.
The next day he ends up in an argument with Faith about calling him Stan, but she claims it was just because she was drunk. He also has a fight with another student and afterwards staggers home bloodied and bruised.
He spends the next day drinking heavily and is seen outside in the garden being sick by Mrs Bernoffski.
She takes care of him and tells him that he is not to blame for her Husbands death and shouldn't think that he is.
Luke has another vision. This this time it involves Fang. He sees him in a bloody scene in a bath with razorblades.
Presuming that he is going to take his own life, he rushes to Faith's house for help then they both go to Fang's house.
When they get there Fang is asleep. Luke is angry that his friend would contemplate killing himself and drags him out of the house and into Faith's car.
They travel to a rockface that they have always said that they would conquer one day. Luke wants to show him that there is something to live for and to value his life.
They freeclimb the challenging rockface with each other and reach the top, relieved and happy of their achievement.
After the climb, they drive back home and Fang tells them that his name will be published in the local newspaper as they are planning on exposing a group of around fifteen men who were arrested for homosexual activity in a local park.
They drop Fang at home and they continue on to Luke's house. After getting out of the car, he turns back and kisses Faith. When he gets home he tells his Mum that he wants her to cut his shoulder length hair short, which she does.
Luke then narrates the closing scene where he is seen to be walking through a park and says that we all eventually die, but we also get to live and that is not to be missed.
Although this movie had a good storyline and great actors, I do feel as though it was left unfinished.
The ending was poor in comparison to the rest of the film and I think that they could have packed more content into the bulk of the movie too.
The idea of the narrative was there but I don't think the story was told to it's full potential.
Sometimes the scenes lacked fullness and weren't enriched enough, but I do find that with a lot of Dramas to be honest as they usually tell quite a serious story.
So in summary, It was a good watch but I wouldn't choose to watch it again.
It was ok to pass 90 minutes or so of the day.
Movie Monkey Rating: 3
