Director Michelle Danner
Starring Norman Reedus, Garrett Backstrom, Martha Higareda
Rated MA
Score 5/6

Set in the not so distant future, in Any Town USA, sixteen year old Herman Howards makes a fateful decision. He enters his suburban school and kills thirty nine students, two teachers, and a police officer. Just before his arrest he emails his idol, famous journalist Lax Morales, sending him clips of the shootings captured with Herman’s own digital camera. In the clips Herman tells Lax, “I want to tell my story on your show”.

For some reason when the credits rolled on this movie I immediately thought about Ricky Gervais’ infamous Ipswich Prostitute Joke from his Fame tour. In that joke he said ‘if you want to be famous, go and kill a prostitute’. Now the thing is that isn’t fame its infamy, and in a fame obsessed culture I can’t help but think that sometimes people get the two confused, so much so a recently released Australian drug smuggler stands to benefit from a financial windfall should there ever be an interview about their experiences in jail.
I was actually very impressed with Garrett Backstrom’s performance considering at the time it was only his second role in a feature film. Personally I found that character of Herman was very well written. The character had the dynamic of being dismissed by his peers and society as a whole, and just wanted to be treated with a little bit of respect. When he met his end I’d like to think he found that little bit of respect.