Alpha Dog

This reconstruction of an adolescent tragedy is similar to Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, but filmed in a traditional manner and relying on emotion and sentiment (that’s Nick Cassavetes for you). The most important thing is the actors – Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster are excellent, while Justin Timberlake and the kidnapped Anton Yelchin don’t do the film any harm. What does harm the film, however, is the final conversations with “real” parents, as they degrade its authenticity and believability (especially the overweight and overacting Sharon Stone is terrible!). (11/01/2009)

Adequately uncompromising and rough, and at times unfortunately a bit exaggerated. All the flaws in pacing and unnecessary flood of "fucks" are compensated for by an excellent ensemble cast led by the demigod Hirsch and the madman Foster. However, I cannot avoid criticism even here. Famous names are not always beneficial, Alpha Dog is most hurt by the slightly clumsy Timberlake and especially the unbelievable Sharon Stone, whose hysteria at the end made me painfully embarrassed. My fortune lies in the fact that I don’t mind knowing the ending from the beginning and that I can enjoy the atmosphere of hot cats and ruthless tough guys. This piece is packed to bursting with it. (12/07/2007)

Quite an interesting film addition. Although Cassavetes indulges in a brutally large number of “fucks” and blatantly tries to serve us the rawest story of youth, some aspects are beautifully captured. For example, the verbal shootouts and the unbelievably raw personal conflicts and fights in general. Surprisingly, the actors are also fantastic. Justin Timberlake and especially Ben Foster, whose character is played brilliantly. Don't expect a plot-driven ride, but the rawness and attractive pace will definitely not make you press the stop button. (15/10/2008)

Films based on real events have one major disadvantage. People generally look at them a bit differently. If the story itself is emotional, filmmakers usually take advantage of this fact and try to emotionally impress the viewer. This is how the film "Síla srdce" affected me. On the other hand, it may happen that filmmakers are so sure of what they are shooting that they add very little to it because they think the film will speak for itself. Not much extra is added to the film, even though not much actually happened. This is exactly the problem with the film "Alpha Dog". More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2013/02/alpha-dog-2006-55.html (09/04/2013)