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Young Unknowns, The
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Catherine Jelski
Wolfgang Bauer (play Magic Afternoon)
Directed by: Catherine Jelski
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 11, 2003
DVD: January 24, 2006
Running Time: 87 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Devon Gummersall, Eion Bailey, Arly Jover, Leslie Bibb, Dale Godboldo, and Simon Templeman
The story of how fierce consumption of alcohol and drugs causes an aspiring filmmaker (Gummersall) to fight with his best friend (Bailey) over the course of a drunken day lounging about at the home of his famous TV commercial director father.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
There's a shocking, casual quality to the self-destructive narcissism of the pretty, petty kids squandering their lives in the L.A. sunshine of The Young Unknowns.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
It isn't a masterpiece; there are occasional clunkers in Jelski's dialogue (adapted from a play by Wolfgang Bauer) and the acting, although superior to maybe 85 percent of Hollywood movies, is a little uneven.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Chris Parcellin
The film wants to be a revealing character study of aimless Hollywood wannabes, but the story is just not compelling enough to make the viewer care.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Jelski is a skilled filmmaker, and her sense of reality is so uncompromising that, even when tempered by a touch of dark humor, her film is a grim, hard-to-take business.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Jelski's dialogue is razor sharp and she got a terrific performance from the relatively inexperienced Gummersall, who runs a gamut of emotions and holds the screen like a seasoned star.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
A skin-deep examination of a shallow lifestyle that draws a conclusion so logical it's almost superfluous.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
The Young Unknowns flails about, sometimes realistically, but the cumulative effect is "so what?" These characters may be young and unknown, but they feel old and in the way.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Jelski's screenplay, a finalist in the fiercely competitive Walt Disney Screenwriting Fellowship competition, is repetitive and stagy.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dave Kehr
Held back throughout by the self-conscious, overly explicit dialogue and the judgmental, moralistic undertone that throbs throughout.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Mark Olsen
By the time a not terribly surprising tragedy hits and these crazy kids get theirs, the movie doesn't so much end as finally keel over.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Hank Sartin
This bleak little drama started as a play, and I'd bet that even onstage it felt contrived.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Dredges up every cliche about druggy, obnoxious dreamers on the fringes of Hollywood and assumes that said cliches have the power to shock and surprise.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Kevin M. Williams
There is nothing to redeem this movie, and no real reason to see it.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
A strident, painfully repetitive and hopelessly stage-bound drama about self-indulgent twentysomethings on the fringes of the L.A. film scene.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a7:
Paloma(Arly Jover) knows whenever Charlie(Devon Gummersall) is on the phone with Joe(Eion Bailey), he inexplicably starts talking like a black man; and if the two friends are in the same room together, their hip-hop posturing includes an arsenal of swaggering gesticulations to help massage some street cred out of their Beverly Hills accents. They sound both, ridiculous and earnest, when they start into their gangsta-rap-inspired repartee, so it's debatable if the allusion you draw from this bit of minstrelsy is intentional or not. For Devon, being off-color and misogynistic helps offset his home alone pangs(daddy is a world-trotting television director and mommy is an alcoholic runaway). For Joe, well, see for yourself what he does after snorting too much crystal meth. "The Young Unknowns" should be insufferable to sit through, but Gummersall is fun to watch if you remember his stint as Brian Krakow on the defunct ABC series "My So-Called Life". It's like watching David Morse(who was soft-spoken Dr. Morrison on the hospital drama "St. Elsewhere) when you saw him play a real ass**** for the first time. Charlie would call Angela Chase a "ho"; as he does his patient girlfriend, Jover, who is skilled at both dragging on a cigarette with practiced ennui, and being maternal when the situation calls for a soft side. Unlike Richard Linklater's "Tape", the acting and the writing doesn't quite transcend its one-location setting, but "The Young Unknowns" is surprisingly effective in showing the unique problems that plague a quartet of upper class-twentysomethings. Drugs are the great equalizer; drugs makes people from all walks/stations of/in life miserable.
Frank J. gave it a 10:
Amazing performances story and direction bravo!!
