Based on the book of the same name written by the 17-year old (at the time) Nick McDonell, Twelve offers a fast paced journey through a week in the life of a young drug dealer. “White Mike” has never done any drug or used alcohol to distract him from the reality of his situation.  His mother is dead from cancer, he has fantastic childhood friends who have been there every step of the way, his family is well-respected in the community…and he’s dropped out of school to become a successful drug dealer to spoiled rich kids in the Upper East Side.  Kiefer Sutherland (24) narrates this seedy tale of when the privileged life meets the underbelly of society and how mutually damaging it can be.
 

The Flick

White Mike is played by Chace Crawford, who has some experience playing one of the aforementioned spoiled rich kids as Nate Archibald on Gossip Girl.  He surprised me with his acting chops in this role – I was impressed and found myself wanting to see more of what he’s capable of.  Mike, as previously mentioned, spends his days dealing weed to the excessively wealthy Manhattan teens until his supplier Lionel (rapper 50 Cent/Curtis Jackson) begins selling a designer drug called “twelve”, an upper similar to ecstasy and coke that hooks users extremely fast.  It hooks Mike’s cousin Charlie (Jeremy Allen White – Law & Order) and when he seeks out Lionel for more, he ends up dead.  As Mike’s best friend Hunter (Philip Ettinger) is accused of the crime, he watches the life he has so carefully constructed slowly spin out of the control.

This film reminded me of films like Crash, Snatch, and He’s Just Not That into You where several separate stories intertwine and eventually collide near the end.  For being filled with fairly no-name actors and one very famous rapper, this film was intriguing, dark and seemed fairly representative of a drug filled lifestyle.  Sutherland’s voice is smooth and almost mocking as he narrates the lives of these kids.  At first, you almost feel as though there is too much narration, but a little over halfway through the movie, it drops off almost completely and I found myself missing it a little.

Rory Culkin fell into show business playing the younger versions of his brothers’ characters.  However, I think he may have finally made it as a great individual actor.  The youngest of the Culkin clan at 21, he stole the show for me as Chris, a slightly uncool teenager with a huge house.  We are told by the narrator that Chris is easily manipulated into having large parties, strung along by the delusional hope of hooking up with one of the more beautiful people.  Of course, his home life can’t be perfect.  The son of well-meaning, if not slightly absent parents and sibling to psychotic brother Claude (played brilliantly by Billy Magnusson), he’s caught in between worlds.  Chris is clearly the peacemaker in the family, attempting to fix everyone’s problems without the slightest idea how.  Watching his face crumble while witnessing his brother’s destruction is downright heartbreaking.
 

Audio and Video

Although Twelve has a 1080p High Def widescreen 1.85:1 presentation, I felt like it really only used it half of the time. I’m guessing director Joel Schumacher was using the many dynamic camera angles to appear more gritty or edgy, but it doesn’t work as well in high def. With that said, the fluctuation of quality in picture is very noticeable. Some scenes are incredibly solid and offer great blacks and color blends while others are blurry and lack a quality level of production. This dialogue heavy film really doesn’t benefit from the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. However, it matters where it’s necessary.
 

Special Features and Packaging

Twelve on Blu-ray come as a single disc collection with a collection of trailers of upcoming films from 20th Century Fox. That’s it.
 

Overall

Featuring heavy similarities to drug-fueled films like Chumscrubber and Requiem For A Dream, Twelve builds upon itself until slowly until it explodes in a fiery dope-filled finale that leaves little revelation and more questions. Regardless, it’s hard not to feel for the film’s protagonist and watching him struggle with his emotions as well as his profession makes this film worth a look.

ComicsOnline gives Twelve on Blu-ray 4 out of 5 crazy binges

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