A Packing Suburbia

This extremely low-budget indie feature (made for $60,000, the publicity notes breathlessly inform us) was actually filmed several years ago, but the current epidemic of school shootings has unfortunately given it a cutting-edge immediacy. The tale of a suburban youth and his descent into gun violence, "A Packing Suburbia" is more notable for its sociological relevance than its cinematic qualities, which are fairly minimal. The film is playing an exclusive theatrical engagement at New York's Regal Cinema Battery Park.

Written and directed by Stephen J. Szkarski, the melodramatic tale concerns the troubles of James Maxwell (Thomas Brandise), a teenager forced to move with his single mother into a undesirable Long Island, N.Y., neighborhood after she undergoes a nasty divorce. While he quickly finds a new girlfriend, Celeste (Aesha Waks), James just as quickly runs afoul of a gang of local toughs, led by Iris (Mariana Carreno), a Latina with a particular fondness for brutality. Iris invites James to join her gang, but when he demurs, she vows revenge, leading to the rape and murder of Celeste.

James, who's now in possession of a gun he found while walking home from school, manages to learn how to use it via some handy instructions found on the Internet (another of the film's areas of topicality) and, like Charles Bronson in "Death Wish," quickly sets out on a course of revenge. His transformation from sensitive youth to gun-wielding vigilante is the film's primary -- and most awkward -- dramatic device.

Unfortunately, the screenplay's heavy-handedness, the stilted direction and the less-than-assured performances diminish the impact of the film's valuable message. It doesn't help that the filmmaker, in the process of making a film supposedly decrying violence, has infused it with enough gory and sadistic brutality to fuel a dozen more supposedly exploitative teen thrillers.

A PACKING SUBURBIA
Cinema Esperanza
Director/screenwriter/executive producer: Stephen J. Szklarski
Producer: Liz Soldo
Film editor: Steve Oakley
Color/stereo
Cast:
James Maxwell: Thomas Brandise
Mrs. Maxwell: Molly Castelloe
Celeste Davis: Aesha Waks
Iris: Mariana Carreno
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating