Low Tide 2019 * * * Stars

Director: Kevin McMullin
Year: 2019
Rated R
Rating: * * * Stars
Cast: Jaeden Lieberher, Keean Johnson, Alex Neustaedter

"Are you gonna grow up to be the good guy or the bad guy". That's a quote from Sergeant Kent in 2019's Low Tide (my latest review).

Anyway, Low Tide is a numbing, languid drama/thriller that marks the directing debut of one Kevin McMullin (his only previous credit was a short called First Prize). For me, "Tide" at eighty-six drawn-out minutes, is like a mixture of The Outsiders, 2001's Bully, Stand by Me, and Hot Summer Nights.

Hinting at the 1980's with a rich sense of time and place and shot more than two years ago, Low Tide is well acted by its four young leads in Jaeden Lieberher, Keean Johnson, Alex Neustaedter, and Daniel Zolghadri. Lieberher is like Johnny Cade, Johnson is like Ponyboy Curtis, Neustaedter is like "Dally" Winston (or "Bob" Sheldon), and Zolghadri is like Randy Anderson. Author S. E. Hinton is probably smiling all the way from the Sooner State right about now.

"Tide's" story involves some teenage, Jersey Shore thieves who discover a gold coin treasure. Said treasure violently threatens the boys friendship when the police become hot on their tails. Each coin is worth a thousand dollars and these buds found about a hundred of them (dang).

Helmer McMullin creates "Tide's" atmospheric style while building tension with every careful inch. His editor (Ed Yonaitis) shapes the film in slow, tight cuts which favor the actor's rhythms. "Tide's" account entailing crime doesn't pay remnants, Coppola switchblade shots, and fragmented kinships, seems easy to follow.

My first question is where the heck are the parents when all this death and revenge is going on. My second question is what are these youngster characters gonna do later in life when their futures don't seem too bright to begin with. My final question is why didn't Bruce Springsteen make a "Tunnel of Love" cameo. Just kidding. Rating: Low Tide gets a slightly recommendable 3 stars and well, it's on the "low".

Written by Jesse Burleson