The Vicious Kind

Drew's Thoughts:
The Vicious Kind is a decent, darkly comic low budget drama. The main attraction is the central performance by Adam Scott (The Aviator, TV's Party Down) who does what he does best, playing an enormous dickhead. Scott got a surprise Independent Spirit Award nomination last year for his performance despite the film never actually being shown outside the festival circuit. It was released this year and I checked it out on Netflix. First time film maker Lee Toland Krieger does a pretty good job here, doing a lot with a little. Adam Scott is good and totally commits to playing a completely unlikable asshole. He plays Caleb a character with some serious issues and the film sees things get dicey when his younger brother and his girlfriend come home for Thanksgiving to the dad Caleb doesn't speak with. There's a lot of harsh moments though the film manages to make a few of them funny. I wouldn't list it as a comedy as Netflix has though. The films feels a little long at just under an hour and a half but I found it pretty engaging for such a simple story about a jerkoff. It's a better story-about-an-asshole than Greenberg.
Probably not many Dolphin prospects beyond Scott's performance and he's in the usually tough category of Best Actor. It's one of the better lead performances so far this year though.