Post by StevePulaski on Jul 13, 2016 0:00:14 GMT -5
Trophy Kids (2013)
Directed by: Chris Bell
Directed by: Chris Bell
Rating: ★★★
Whenever I watch films like Trophy Kids, I only become grateful of the life I've lived so far. When I was younger, my parents enrolled me in a barrage of things, most things I recall with a poor memory. I was in teeball, swimming, soccer, skating, and so forth, for no more than a year or so, and judging by my short-lived careers in all of the above, I was pretty mediocre. Thankfully, my parents weren't the least bit concerned, or perhaps that part of my memory fades too. They simply wanted to give me a chance to get the feel for what I was good at.
Fifteen years later, I find the majority of my days spent in front of a screen, be it a television or a computer, watching a TV show, a short film, or a feature-length film and proceeding to write a review it, or even before a mic, singing or rapping my life. The blessing in all this is my parents never held me back from doing what I wanted to do. They were understanding of my eclectic yet versatile interests and let me pursue them how I wanted.
The kids shown in Chris Bell's documentary Trophy Kids unfortunately do not have the same sort of cushy privilege of choice, free will, and the ability to suck, for lack of a better term. For them, each day is mostly a grueling struggle predicated upon impressing and satisfying those who will never be impressed nor satisfied and the saddest thing about that is those specific souls are their parents. The ones who should be respectful of their wishes and understanding of the typical, teenage problems they once went through are dismissive of their concerns only to express any kind of emotion if they miss a shot at their basketball game or attempt an incorrect play at their football game.
Trophy Kids focuses on three sports-driven relationships involving a father and a son, one involving a father and his daughter, and one involving a mother and her twin boys. When all of these situations are placed alongside one another, you get a flavor for what happens when parents begin to want their child to be the best instead of wanting the best from their child, a clear distinction which Bell subtly highlights with this documentary.
Consider Justus Moore, a fifteen-year-old, high school student who's love for football was largely corrupted by his overbearing father Josh Moore, who constantly belittles and demeans him for practically everything he does that isn't on par or in-line with his predictions of what he should be doing. Two of the most heartwrenching scenes of the documentary come during car-rides, one where Josh is driving, the other where Justus's mother and Josh's ex-wife Shelley is driving.
Regardless of the scenario, both scenes have Josh yelling and taunting Justus for his either presumed apathy over his football performance - which is optimistically supposed to result in a Division 1 scholarship the way Josh would have it - or Justus's desire to provide his opinion on his own personal matters, such as maintaining a dating relationship. When Justus discusses his relationship with a girl he recently met, Josh cruelly shuts him down, and when Justus claims he doesn't want to talk about it anymore, like a true bully, Josh tells his son how a conversation isn't over until the adult says it is over. Throughout this entire scene, Justus looks defeated and miserable, holding back tears welling in his eyes, unable to say anything that would make his father happy. Even when he claims that he doesn't understand how things like love work because he's only fifteen, Josh simply beats him back into "his place."
Scenes like this exist throughout the course of Trophy Kids, and while some will hit you harder than others, that doesn't mean all of them aren't powerful in some aspect. Consider Steve, whose son Derek is a high school basketball player. Steve has the same sort of expectations for his son as Josh has for his and that's for him to obtain a Division 1 scholarship and be well on his way to a lucrative professional career. Derek is an uncommonly gifted player; most people watching a minute or two highlight reel of the kid would say the same. Yet through every game, except for the select away games at which he is banned from attending, Steve sits on the sidelines, hurling insults at his son, on top of directions he won't hear, plays and moves he has no time to react to, in addition to gossiping with nearby attendants who are simply trying to enjoy the game.
It's not so much surprising that Trophy Kids was made into a film but the fact that its subjects were so willing to be their unapologetic selves on camera and find nothing at all wrong with their behavior. In fact, they often blame their own actions on their child's failure to live up to their own personal standards. Another father decides it's totally acceptable to call his nine-year-old daughter a "bitch" when she misses a difficult shot in a golf game; another mother forces her twin boys to credit God with all the blessings in their life, to the point where their lives and self-worth ostensibly mean nothing so long as God is allegedly pleased. The whole thing is deplorable, and it isn't long before you see the irony of the adults acting like the children in this film.
While Trophy Kids does a nice job at bringing the often fabled and empty idea of a helicopter or abusive parent to life in explicit deal, it's a bit contradictory in the way that it never or scarcely lets the victims speak for themselves. The subjects that suffer from the crippling abuse from their parents rarely get one-on-one time with the camera, and rather that's a result of Bell's lack of personal examination or the parents' unwillingness to let their children speak for themselves, I cannot say. Nonetheless, it leaves a noticeably empty angle and places the audiences in the uncomfortable position of recognizing we can't learn much more about these athletes' lives other than the fact that they are sad and greatly hurt by their parents.
With that, Trophy Kids makes for compelling viewing on the basis of its premise, which few documentaries can maintain. For close to two hours, the film offers a sickening examination at the worst kind of parents you can find, and it only gets worse when you recognize that they are the ones who don't believe they are doing anything wrong.
Directed by: Chris Bell.