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Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006)

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Overall Rating 60%
Overall Rating
Ranked #7,128
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A lyrical telling of the coming of age of a 13-year-old boy who learns to cope with his new found sexuality and his unrequited love for the cool kid in school. --TMDb
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Review by bluemeanie
Added: November 2, 2007
When I think about writer/director Cam Archer, I generally lump him into the same category as directors like Todd Solondz and Christopher Munch. For starters, he makes gay themed pictures, but not that kind that seem preachy or pretentious. Archer takes little excerpts from life and bases his entire film around them. And, much like Solondz, he's a provocateur. He tackles risque subject matter and isn't afraid to wade into dangerous waters to tell his story. A few years ago, he made some short films about the lives of Jonathan Brandis and River Phoenix. They were met with a swarm of controversy. His first feature, "Bobbycrush", was phenomenal and dealt with a 13-year-old boy falling in love with his best friend. "Wild Tigers I Have Known" is not totally dissimilar to that, but shows a director who has matured as both a filmmaker and as a storyteller. "Wild Tigers I Have Known" is a peculiar film, but it casts this unusual spell over its audience. Sometimes it steps into territory that seems awkward and boundary crossing, but it doesn't go too far.

The film is about Logan (Malcolm Stumpf), a social outcast who also happens to be 13-years-old and in middle school. The film opens with the news report that a wild mountain lion was spotted on the school grounds. Malcolm wants to see one of these mountain lions for himself. His mother (Fairuza Balk) loves her son, but thinks he's uncoordinated and strange. His best friend, Joey (Max Paradise), thinks he's weird too, but he's his best friend. Logan, as it turns out, is infatuated with an older boy at his school, Rodeo Walker (Patrick White). Logan constantly fantasizes about his pretend life with Rodeo. As luck would have it, Rodeo and Logan start hanging out. Rodeo likes that Logan doesn't want to just party or get wasted. The two becomes friends, even though Rodeo's girlfriend doesn't think the most popular kid in school should be hanging out with the biggest dork in school. As Logan's infatuation grows, he invents Leah, a female version of himself, who calls Rodeo and initiates phone sex on a couple of occasions. This is Logan's way of living out his all to unreal fantasies. By the end of the film, Logan is dealt a serious emotional blow and "Wild Tigers I Have Known" ends as a film about one kid's search for who he is going to be.

The visual style of this film is very glossy. Director Cam Archer pulled out all the visual tricks up his sleeve and uses them in a variety of different ways. There is one extremely visceral image of a spider walking in front of a tiger's eye, and then a moon, that stuck with me. Archer is very much theatrical in the way he sets up his scenes and his sequences. Take, for example, the sequence of Logan standing in the middle of the pool and all the swimmers passing by him. This seems to be almost meticulously choreographed - kind of like something Julie Taymor would have done. While this visual style is usually affective, it can sometimes take you out of the moment. There is also very little dialogue throughout most of the film. Most of it is silence - absolute silence; Cam Archer likes to show very pretty images to a backdrop of nothing. But, for me, the most creative and affective sequences are when Logan is fantasizing about Rodeo. These are dream sequences like you've never seen before, but they're not so far fetched that you can't believe them.

The performances are also very solid. Malcolm Stumpf is very convincing as Logan, a kid who doesn't fit in, is just discovering his sexuality and really has the hots for the coolest kid in school. He plays it very low key, but it works. As Rodeo, Patrick White is also very accessible. He has good explanations for why he wants to be Logan's friend - because Logan isn't like all the other kids who want to be his friend. Deep down, Rodeo knows that Logan has a crush on him, but he keeps it going primarily out of his own vanity, which is considerable. One of the real standouts here was Fairuza Balk as Logan's Mother. She is one of those actresses who played the same exact role for so long that she kind of became annoying. Here, she is playing something I have never seen her play before - a mother. She does a really good job. Her scene when Logan drops the groceries is just priceless, and their relationship in the film is a very interesting one - we are never fully certain as to where she is coming from. She might be in definite consideration for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award, if I was picking the nominees and the winners.

In conclusion, "Wild Tigers I Have Known" comes close to crossing some lines. We have a lot of scenes of Logan masturbating and a lot of scenes of everything from watching him watch his own erection, to his fantasy sequences. Director Cam Archer doesn't cross those lines, but he places his toes on the edge. Solondz would have crossed those lines. "Wild Tigers I Have Known" is a film that isn't really about anything substantial, in the grand scheme of things. It's a film that weaves its way in and out of the main storyline. It's a film that might be difficult for some people to watch, just in the way it's structured and carried out. But, it's also an independent film in the truest sense of the word. It even has that indie gloss that has become to well known. "Wild Tigers I Have Known" might not make my list of the year's best films, but it will be an honorable mention. Chances are you missed it in theatres - so take a chance on it now, because I said so.

9/10.
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Review by Kari Byron's Sex Cyborg
Added: August 9, 2007
Do you know those films you read only a little bit about and you quickly think that they will be surefire winners, so you then immediately check them out or blind-buy? Well, when I first read the synopsis for Wild Tigers I Have Known, I had the whole movie playing in my head perfectly and envisioned it being a diamond independent release that I'd absolutely love; I could not wait to lay my eyes on it. The synopsis I read goes like this:
Longing to be loved, 13-year-old social outcast Logan (Malcolm Stumpf) becomes sexually infatuated with Rodeo Walker (Patrick White) -- the most popular boy at school. But when he spurns Logan's affections, the smitten youngster creates an alternate female identity named Leah hoping to entice Rodeo to a rendezvous. Max Paradise plays Logan's girl-crazy best friend in director Cam Archer's lyrical yarn about evolving adolescence.
I'm sure that may not briskly attract many of you, but I really felt it had great potential to make a marvelous film. Unfortunately for myself, this film went down a different path than the one I had so fervently dreamed of; but with only lesser satisfaction than anticipated, I still liked it.

Allow me to mention right now that Wild Tigers I Have Known is an arthouse film. It being an arthouse film caught me off guard but did not change my disposition while watching since I enjoy the genre a lot. You can usually expect there to be stalled facial expression shots, metaphoric scenes, visually aesthetic cinematography, poetic dialogue and experimentation present when it comes to arthouse flicks, all of which I fully welcome with opened arms. Wild Tigers is no different. In addition, there's something else you can often also expect from arthouse movies, and that is the dreaded P-word: pretentious(ness); along with people flimsily using it. I am going to avoid using such language here, though.

The story is quite as frank as it is described within the above synopsis, but I will slightly reiterate and flesh that out a bit to give a better picture because a single word here and there can always add a whole different perspective.
After getting punched by a classmate for "looking at him funny," ostracized (save for his one friend, Joey) Logan visits the school counselor (Kim Dickens). Following their discussion and leaving her office, Logan chats with an older junior high boy named Rodeo, whom Logan seems to have a developing crush on as he is repeatedly on display in his dreamworld. They hang out a little after school for some time and get to know each other better, finding relatable thoughts and feelings to be shared. Soon Logan, disguised in voice as a girl named Leah, starts telephoning Rodeo where they have sexually provocative exchanges. Rodeo tells Leah that he wants to "fuck" her which leads to Logan eventually accepting.
And that's basically it.

Storywise, the movie tries to work with that alone for 81 minutes and it ends up testing your patience. Through long, ambient shots, to poignant, intervening daydream sequences, to some insignificant scenes does this film stretch itself out. Like I said, I really do enjoy arthouse films and their style, but many of the artistic scenes in Wild Tigers actually ended up being too much for me as they began to get annoyingly repetitive while overstaying their welcome. Halfway through, it begins to feel like a never-ending music video. I guess it would be fitting to now acknowledge that this is a feature-length debut by 24-year-old director, Cam Archer, whose previous work consists of a few short films and several music videos. I am not trying to say anything negative, because I do find the man's work very appealing, but he just currently lacks the experience in tackling a project like this, that's all. Such scenes like where Logan is at the school dance and later when he is first on the phone speaking to Rodeo in a room with a bunch of light bulbs hanging from the ceiling that are glowing and flickering on and off are both very mesmerizing. Speaking of when Logan telephones Rodeo, we never see Logan's lips move, although there is a girl voice-over speaking as him in disguise as Leah, which is undoubtedly not really being produced by him. Those scenes along with a few others are accompanied by an eerie atmosphere which oddly helps set the mood for the cloudy emotions going through Logan as he struggles with coming-of-age and of sexuality. One minor thing that was fairly off-putting, since I couldn't figure out its aim from one way or another, was the intermittent narrative lines by Logan which come off as unabashed teenage poetry that falls sour upon the ears; although, if intentional in that manner, they captured Logan's adolescence well... but I doubt they were.

Most of the feelings the film tries to elicit are done so by being conveyed through the sharp artistry of Aaron Platt's cinematography, not particularly the characters. Malcolm Stumpf's role as the confused Logan was a nice portrayal and should be applauded. Patrick White as Rodeo was alright. Logan's friend Joey, played by Max Paradise, was pretty good in his small parts - I used to know a kid just like him, except his hair wasn't nearly as funny. Fairuza Balk as the mother, despite being a small role, was bewitching - I fell in love with her during the little time she was on screen.

Wild Tigers I Have Known is sort of tricky for me to faithfully recommend. Its a gorgeous film in a glossy way, but the minimal yet tantalizing plot is marred by the challenging pace at which it advances with an abundance of arty self-indulgence. If it were condensed to a 40-minute short or rather more character-driven, this most likely would have struck pure gold. If you don't mind sloth-like progression, like in Gus Van Sant's Elephant (who is actually the executive producer of Wild Tigers but merely just to have his name attached to the project), and fancy artistic cinema, I believe you will like this.

6.5/10
bluemeanie #1: bluemeanie - added August 9, 2007 at 12:51pm
Love, love, loved this film. I saw this a couple of times on the festival circuit and it became my "Mean Creek" of this year. Cam Archer is a fine filmmaker and I've actually had the chance to meet him on a couple of occasions, and this is his best work to date. The storyline is fresh and invigorating, the directing style is very unique and crucial to the story's success, and the film is just absolutely beautifully shot. I loved this film. 10/10.
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