source: 1-800-Hot-Nite

Dallas Dupree Young shines in this inner city Coming-of-age film. Dallas (Tommy), a youth growing up in a one parent household, that has many issues, finds himself at odds with child services, when his single parent father is busted by a law enforcement raid. Tommy's discovery of this traumatic reality sends him running from the authorities, which teams him up with two unlikely accomplices, his two neighboring friends. Their late night romp throughout the storyline has plenty of intriguing, dramatic, and laughable moments throughout. I do admit that it takes a predictable turn near the end, but has a nice ending that surprisingly ties it all together...from Tommy's perspective. I just watched this tonight at the Twin Cities Film Festival, and consider it a welcoming cinematographic surprise!

1-800-HOTNITE is a bad movie, but at least it is an innocent badness, as the filmmakers, financiers and producers behind it that allowed this dud to move forward seem to be clueless about the basics of story telling, mis-en-scene, and movie making. We were looking forward to this film as traditionally the films at Deauville are of a certain high standard having premiered at other top-tier festivals prior to their Deauville stop. But Deauville for some reason made an exception here by choosing a film that is poorly written and directed, only made somewhat tolerable by up and coming Dallas Young who plays Tommy. In 1-800-HOT-NITE, Tommy loses his father to a drug raid and then embarks on a night of improbable adventure that leaves the viewer feeling bored and frustrated. The story goes nowhere so it is hard to pay attention throughout but I did my best to hang in there till the end. Writer and Director Nick Richey makes a lot of errors. For starters my husband and I still can't tell if the film is set in the 80's , 90's or in modern times because the lead character makes calls from old American telephone booths and corded land lines, and interacts with police driving old police cars, but the entire film feels like it is set at a time when phone booths are obsolete and everyone has a cell phone. The dialog is either boring or pointless. For example, the characters comment on each other's clothes with great emphasis even though there is absolutely nothing remarkable about their clothes. Perhaps the only line of dialog that is compelling in the film is it's title "1-800-HOT-NITE" as it sort of hooked us to check it out. 1-800-HOT-NITE has the appearance of an amateur film that was made with dialog improvisation on set after characters are placed in situations that are unnatural. Tommy decides to collect money for some paper route (hello 90's again! Or maybe even 70's!) late at night and in cash, something that would most likely lead to nothing, but in Richey's thoughtless script, this decision by Tommy triggers the most improbable responses from other characters who apparently are on Tommy's paper route that he somehow walks to door to door late into the night. Are all these paper route characters all in one city block readily available to open their doors to Tommy to give him cash for a paper route after midnight? Or is Tommy able to teleport himself from one door to the next? I suppose any unbelievable occurrence is possible with a script that has no sense of time or place.

Trailer—1-800-Hot-Nite

source: 1-800-Hot-Nite

I didn't expect this movie to be that good , honestly I didn't understand the low ratings but as a kid this was a great coming of age , the script wasn't a problem , I felt this was a kid having learning about the real world in a hard way .. at first I thought it was going to be a comedy ( like super bad American pie etc etc ) but no it was more of David Clark's ( kids) not as vulgar but that same type of feel ... as a kid you think you have the answers and think life hits one way but in reality it doesn't ... live is hard , in one night one little boy learns almost every life lesson you can learn in a life time , friends , love, people , adults and cold reality. I really enjoyed this movie in my opinion it's something new compared to what's been coming out lately.

I got conned into watching 1-800-Hot-Nite by the Director himself who gets a 10/10 for being a kick ass hype man and sales man for his terrible film. I met him at a film festival and he had me sold on this 1-800 film and his abilities as a filmmaker which I would actually rank very poorly now that I have seen the work. But he got me as I purchased this film on digital based on his hyping it and telling me how it got into some prestigious Euro festival which now I suspect may not even be true or if it did get it in it was possibly because the Director conned someone there too. It has a 90's vibe which I usually dig but it seems like it is also in modern times I don't know if I missed something or it is just another terrible problem in this film. The cast is pretty weak but it could have been the scripting as they also are forced to say pointless lines in constantly contrived narrative which lacks a focus. I mean really this film is about nothing and is plain boring I am sorry to say. To be fair the actor who plays the main kid is actually pretty good at times and the woman in the car seems to be a pro actress but the rest are kind of forgettable. I just felt like I got cheated out of my time more than money honestly, and I really hope no one else gets conned into watching this film. This Director either has no shame or he truly has no idea what a good script and good film-making is. Just all in all bad for indy film when schlock like this gets pushed on the consumer, bad for the distributor selling this schlock and bad for the festivals showing this schlock.

Factor of this film is the KIDS, wow, they are just marvellous in their acts.a very urbanized, dire straits dramamovie, about a kid not even teenager yet, fleeing to the streets, just because being born into a family that strives, having police on his back (sounds like a clash song) cause momma and daddy deals vicodine and the children care services is the next in line...but the bold kid wont!! I was stunned by the streetwiseness of these kids, the story take so many twist and turns, it covers so many aspects of life and shows to some extent the socialrealism of life in a careful but still heartbroken way. The cast delivers brilliantly, the plotpace is breathtaking, and the grips and takes made by the director and its crew at this production is just outta this world in real life there would have been 15 patrols searching for this kid, i know, but watch it for the love and hopes that the main caracter wants and needs. Its not a film for the youngest kids, but could be considered as a PG-7 rating, because everything here is bloodfree and explainable for the adolescent. Its not oscarworthy, but its full of talent on both sides. Bravissimo thinks the grumpy old man.

This coming of age movie following three young boys during a night of escape is a fun and many times difficult story of innocence, boyhood, and troublesome circumstances. One thing that makes the movie so captivating is that the storyline and the kids' encounters are closely based on real life experiences that the director had gone through himself, as a teenager. From getting into disagreements with close friends and tricking paper route customers into paying them, to running into some really creepy characters and running away from police, the boys' adventure unfolds from a night of innocent mischief to real and scary realities of growing up. The unexpected twist of the phone operator's purpose in the film adds another layer of humanity to the characters, including the operator herself (someone who in real life, can be dehumanized by nature). Each cast member did a splendid job portraying their characters, and the director's heart is definitely seen throughout the movie. A must see! Watch it a second time and you'll catch many things you may have missed the first time around!

Dallas Dupree Young shines in this inner city Coming-of-age film. Dallas (Tommy), a youth growing up in a one parent household, that has many issues, finds himself at odds with child services, when his single parent father is busted by a law enforcement raid. Tommy's discovery of this traumatic reality sends him running from the authorities, which teams him up with two unlikely accomplices, his two neighboring friends. Their late night romp throughout the storyline has plenty of intriguing, dramatic, and laughable moments throughout. I do admit that it takes a predictable turn near the end, but has a nice ending that surprisingly ties it all together...from Tommy's perspective. I just watched this tonight at the Twin Cities Film Festival, and consider it a welcoming cinematographic surprise!