Visionary director Matt Pizzolo takes a harsh look at what it means to be a disaffected youth in his new film Threat. Pizzolo’s world shows that the promised land of opportunity and the American dream are relics of the past. Society, according to the film, has devolved into a chaotic animalistic reality, where rage, not logic, colours everyday life.
Although it may sound akin to similar independent films (think Kids), Threat is unique in that violence is portrayed to a degree that would make even the most iron-stomached viewer wince.
Threat follows Jim (Carlos Puga), a suburban-bred homeless youth just trying to get by. He sleeps in washrooms, crashes on friends’ floors, and aimlessly walks the streets of New York City. Jim is homeless because he chooses to be. He knows he has other opportunities in life, but he chooses a life others fear. Threat examines Jim’s interactions with his friends, other troubled youths, and the conflicts that arise on streets that have their own laws.
Throughout the film, Jim expresses his feelings of rejection and anger against a culture that he believes has cast him away. His friends are similar in that they all feel forgotten. Looks of anger and frustration are ever-present among Jim’s crowd, a group that, for all its education, lacks hope.
Jim’s friends and acquaintances represent a cross-section encompassing different races, nationalities, and ethnicities. From Jim’s friend Kat (Katie Nisa), who is discriminated against continually because of her gender, to Fred (Keith Middleton), an African-American man tired of being stereotyped, the people Jim meets along his journey all have feelings of anger and disenchantment.
Threat depicts a generation of youth who are fed up with being treated as less than human. Usually, these feelings burn just under the skin and are never exposed to the outside world. Threat presents a different scenario where, one night, the rage bubbling underneath the surface turns into horrific violence. Jim and his friends are at first innocent commentators on the ills of society; the eruption of violence makes them willing accomplices.
It is not clear whether Pizzolo is trying to glorify violence as a means of change or trying to vilify it. What is clear is the film’s message regarding the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots. Threat explores the possible violent results of this growing disconnect. There is a great deal of gratuitous violence in this film, but it helps demonstrate the level of anger that exists in today’s society and the possible consequences of that violence. By no means is Threat a public service announcement trying to make people more aware of societal woes. Instead, this film can be viewed as an urban allegory in which the final message is not completely clear.
To create a snapshot of the Lower East Side, Pizzolo creates a film that is not only emotionally but visually raw. In crafting a world that comes alive when the rest of us go to sleep, Pizzolo uses colour film for the night shots, while depicting the boredom of day with black-and-white. Towards the end of the film, animation is skillfully inserted to further blur the boundaries of reality. Although Threat is often too philosophical for its own good, it is a unique film that tries to give a voice to a group that is often overlooked.
