Sunsets

Co-directed by the editor of Giant Robot magazine, this account of three young men growing up bored and drunk in Watsonville, California, fits into the long line of male rite-of-passage movies which stretches back to Fellini's I Vitelloni. The three friends have varied racial origins: Gary is white trash, constantly in and out of jail on assault charges; Dave is Hispanic, damaged by a bad love affair and stuck working in a comic-book store; and Mark is Japanese-American, the brainy one who'll leave for college in San Francisco after the summer. Shot in extended takes (16mm, b/w) which throw a lot of weight on the actors, the film's stylistic purity makes it unexpectedly compelling. And as a sketch of the mediocrity of the California backwoods, it's smarter and more credible than anything Gregg Araki has come up with.