Deuces Wild

In the summer of 1958, war breaks out between rival Brooklyn street gangs over whether to move “junk” in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, writers Paul Kimatian and Christopher Gambale and director Scott Kalvert are moving junk like this in our movie theaters. Clichés are as thick as the cigarette smoke, but they’re not tied together; trite scenes follow one another with no indication of how characters get from one posture to the next; it’s as if the producers (all 13 of them) hoped to tie things up in the editing room. But Kalvert can’t find a rhythm to match John A. Alonzo’s evocative photography; he resorts to slow-mo, quick dissolves, and other gimmicks at random while drawing overwrought performances from his cast (which includes Stephen Dorff, Brad Renfro, Fairuza Balk, and an uncredited Matt Dillon).