No. 57 Echo Boomers (2020) 85 of 100

 

The ‘echo boomers’ of the title are a gang of disillusioned youth who go about stealing stuff and smashing up houses because they have student loans. They are never referred to as ‘echo boomers’ as such, but a coda at the end suggests this generation isn’t an echo of others, with them having lower drink and smoking addictions and more likely to be racially tolerant. That’s all very nice but it would be harder to find a less likeable group of people than this outfit.

The film is told in retrospect with the main character Lance being interviewed in prison. It’s a strange narrative choice as it takes away a lot of the element of surprise. He’s in the jail at the end, so the only story to be told is how he gets there.

Lance, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, (how did he land this role?!) is a plank of wood who can’t get a job after graduation. He has paid $60k for his tuition but is either too inexperienced or over qualified for the jobs he applies for. This point is reinforced by snippets of news broadcasts, basically all saying it’s tough for young people.

Lance heads out to Chicago where a seemingly well to do cousin offers him a job. He goes along to meet his new colleagues, but is surprised when they break into a mansion and wreck and loot the place. They take their swag to local fence, Michael Shannon, who goes through the motions of yelling at them and demanding they take better care of the purloined goods. Shannon has a bent insurance adjuster in his pocket and from him he gets tips of profitable targets.

As you’d expect there is friction in the gang, with leader Ellis keeping most of the profits and being a right dick about it. Lance fancies Ellis’ girlfriend an embarrassing and unbelievable love triangle is mooted.

Things come to a head when the girlfriend overdoses and a schism forms in the group. Can one last big score set the team up or will they all end up in jail? Oh wait…

This was a terrible film with nothing to say and a distasteful way of trying to say it. The youths, most of who looked over 30, were set up as free spirited radicals but they just came across as a bunch of pricks. I appreciate I’m the kind of person the echo boomers are railing against (has some stuff, has worked) but I can’t see anyone watching the long scenes of property destruction and saying ‘Hell yeah!’. You can’t wait for them to come undone and it’s only a pity that when it inevitably happens that it isn’t in a hail of bullets.

The acting is uniformly bad with the sneering cousin and the dull girlfriend being the worst offenders. The girlfriend does some voice-over too, as the ending reveals that she too has been banged up and is also being interviewed. Hopefully the secure facility will keep the cast from any further creative ventures!

Shannon has an off day here and when I say ‘day’ I mean it as all his scenes are in and around a warehouse so he was probably on set for 20 minutes. His character was poorly written, with him a master fence, leaving himself exposed to a bunch of incompetents who were always bringing him down. He shouted and snarled a bit but, unlike his character, I wasn’t buying.

Definitely one to avoid unless you are a recently imprisoned rioter, in which case you may get off on a bloke smashing up a dolls house.

When is Shannon-On? - 02.39

Outcome? Busted and off to jail

Film 2/5

Shannon Stars 2.5/5