Hard Candy - 7/10
It's interesting how seemingly unshakeable it is for a overwhelming majority of music video directors to make the jump from short to longform without making a film who's biggest problem is its length. David Slade is no exception. Hard Candy is a high-concept moral drama that succeeds on the strength of two equally complex characters who are neither heroes nor villains (or perhaps, instead, they are a bit of both). It centres on a 14 year old girl who meets up with a 32 year old male photographer after talking online, only for the man to find that he has been set up by the girl who suspects him to be a paedophile. Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson are equally fantastic as Hayley and Jeff, respectively. While Page takes what might be considered a dream role for a young actor, Wilson has taken an extremely risky role, and to those who see the film, it will almost certainly pay off. To hit home that there really is no hero, Slade does a good job of both humanizing the captive as well as de-mystifying the captor which, given the situation, is anything but easy. On an issue like this where the most extreme of hatred seems almost mainstream, it's an interesting perspective for a director to tell a story that just presents the events and allows the viewer to make up his or her own mind. Obviously the issue at heart here is not whether or not paedophilia is an acceptable practise or not, it's a measure of just how far we ought to be willing to go to react against it. And Slade does good work of framing this argument, even if he takes a little long to get to it.