At its best, Nicholas Verso’s tale of estranged teens feels like an attempt to reinvent The Babadook by way of Heartbreak High
Boys in the Trees is no walk in the park; more like a stroll home on a dark spooky night. That’s the literal journey undertaken in the debut feature film of writer/director Nicholas Verso, a tale of two estranged teenage buddies walking the streets and creeping each other out at Halloween circa 1997. Underneath the bonnet, it’s a film exploring childhood regret: in particular, how petty schoolyard games can fracture friendships.
Corey (Toby Wallace) hangs out with the cool boys. They swig vodka straight from the bottle, check porn sites (on rather slow dial-up connections), hang out at the skate park and pash girls. Ringleader Jango (Justin Holborow) is the leader of the pack: a self-entitled and violent sleazeball who considers himself something of a demigod. The sort of guy you want to slap in the face with a cold fish.
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