This one even starts out with a popular Christian hymn, for no apparent reason at all, and then the scene changes to ... this purported movie. Evangelicals are filling the airwaves to win converts to Jesus and this is another of their (sick) attempts at playing on people's emotions to "steer them to Christ". as they put it. Where are the kids parents? This is not a gun control film. This is a "raising your children decently" film. The irony here as we sit watching the church service at the end with all the happy Christians signing happy evangelical songs -- is that the parents are there -- in church. They have been too afraid and too uninterested in talking to their children about life and its problems. Sex? Oh my god, no. Only the heathen talk about that. Guns are to be worshipped in their proper place (not as a means to killing children). Kids' problems are insignificant and can be ignored. This is the evangelical mantra. All you have to do is take them to church three times a week and they'll turn out to be fine spiritual warriors for Christ. (I am the son of evangelical parents and can identify with this movie.)
Not that the kids, however deprived they are of parental attention would act in such a manner. The movie is truly in the twilight zone when it comes to any of this. The police would be called, the parents would cry, they would ask god why they were being punished, and then they would blame their children in some way.
So, rather than presenting a holy look at the wonderful world of the evangelical, we see them for what they really are -- and we see their children -- alone, bereft of attention and advice at a time in their life when it is needed most.
This is a sick, sad movie, unrealistic in most parts, but resonantly true when it comes to others.
Review of Sins of Our Youth
