Buy Cool! on DVD | TLA Movies

Cool!

Picture This! Home Video / Year: 2004

DVD

More Info

ON ORDER
Ships when stock arrives

$9.99 (50% off)
List Price: $19.99

When new special editions or price reductions are announced.

Synopsis

Controversial late filmmaker Theo Van Gogh takes the familiar story of young rebels without a cause and gives it a bracing shot in the arm with this powerful tale of exploited innocence.

3 Reasons To buy this film

Directed by a descendant of Vincent Van Gogh
This was Theo Van Gogh's last completed film
Stars real-life reform school kids

Review

Movies about juvenile delinquents have always loomed as one of cinema's more disreputable but exhilarating subgenres — and with each new generation of moviemakers comes a vivid update. Shortly before his shocking murder in November 2004, the controversial director Theo Van Gogh completed this raw, fatalistic view of Amsterdam kids caught up in the street ethos, moving in time to a hip-hop beat that glamorizes the gangsta lifestyle to which they carelessly subscribe. All of the elements of street life are here, shot by Van Gogh in a verité style and with a cast made up largely of non-professionals. His episodic plot owes a lot to Dickens' "Oliver Twist," with a dynamic Johnny de Mol serving as the Fagin figure and providing the film with its star chemistry. De Mol, abetted by his fetching girlfriend/moll Katja Schuurman, lures a handful of kids into pulling bank heists, one of which lands the boys in the new-style reform school, Glen Mills (some of the gang members are played by real-life denizens of Glen Mills). Van Gogh (indeed, a descendant of Vincent Van Gogh) has staged everything in such a frenetic, intense way that, at times, Cool! seems to have a mixed-time structure and, at other times, its narrative suddenly seems chronological. In short, the film communicates its story with the same abandon that drives its young, hardened characters.

-- Joe Baltake

Product Format Information

DVD : $9.99

Availability: ON ORDER
Ships when stock arrives
Region Code: 1
UPC: 667443558149
Catalog #: DV2127272

Studio : Picture This! Home Video

Languages: Dutch Dolby Digital 2.0 (Primary) , English Subtitles , French Subtitles , Spanish Subtitles
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen
Features:
Music video(s): "Hou je hoofd Cool" day and night versions

Keywords

Coming of Age, Prison / Jail

Genres

Drama, Gay/Lesbian, International

Customer Reviews

Hip Hop Love Story

Amos Lassen wrote on 02/11/2011:

“Cool”
Hip Hop Crime Story
Amos Lassen
“Cool” is one of the last films of the controversial director, Theo Van Gogh who was murdered in 2004. It stars five young and immigrant juvenile delinquents who fill their lives with idle crime. As they move from misdemeanors to their first felony, a bank heist goes wrong and they are caught and convicted They receive a sentence of a year and a half in a special institution, the Glen Mills School. They are to be re-educated inside of serving their sentences in a juvenile facility. Here they find themselves at a new place in life and must realize whether or not they will actually make it through their sentences. If they do they will have to turn away from a life of crime and from their friends.
Van Gogh was a vociferous advocate for free speech and was murdered by a Muslim extremist who took his life because of a documentary dealing with the treatment of Islamic women. He shows us in this film life on the streets of the Netherlands through the eyes of a small group of Moroccan adolescents who challenged by a life of idealism but forced to act criminally by the financial rewards of petty crime. Adbel is the leader of the group who is manipulated into a felony attempt by Prof , a young gangster. When they are apprehended but undercover cops and are forced into reform school, they are supposed to learn how to fit into society. At first they resist but eventually learn through group therapy the benefits of self-respect and respect for others. They are also to discover goals in order to turn their lives around. When they finally reach the point that they are given a pass to visit the “real world”, an incident occurs that capitalizes on what they have learned at the reform school.
The drama is mediocre but it does give insights into underground Dutch society, hip-hop music and crime prevention. It all seems to be surreal and the acting could have been so much better. The movie seems to be advertising the benefits of reform schools and this is a minus. The movie as a whole is bland and the use of hip-hop music does not always work. The message is clear but it is brought to us diluted and the cast, as I said, is quite weak. Even with that, I did learn something about the Netherlands and the perils of being down and out to the point of being forced to live a life of crime.