Shank

I like sharing movies, especially ones that move me. I recently watched Shank. Shank is about a young man named Cal. According to the official summary of the movie, “Cal is an 19-year-old closeted gay gang member who has nothing in his life except drugs, sex, random acts of violence and a secret that he keeps hidden from his mates.”

Some parts of the movie were predictable, but many of the twists surprised me. I will warn you that there is a rape scene in the movie. The scene itself did not trouble me, but the fact that I clearly understood the rapist’s motivations did. The movie does a great job of setting up the tension between the characters. About halfway through the movie, it was clear that the main character and one of his former friends were on a collision course. Don’t worry this information doesn’t ruin the movie. Anyone with eyes and half a brain could see that someone was going to be raped before the end of the movie. Fortunately, the movie is far bigger than the rape. 

Shank shows a young thug’s slow acceptance of his homosexuality. Cal goes from beating gay people up with his friends, to stopping his friends from attacking a young gay man. Cal is deeply flawed and screwed up in so many ways that the audience can only imagine what things he must have experienced as a child. He is imperfect but he is coming in to his own as a person. He grows by leaps and bounds over the course of the movie. By the end, he has accepted who he is and he has taken responsibility for his shortcomings. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey and I’m sure you will too. I usually don’t give movies higher than a B+, but this movie deserves an A-. I really can only find a few faults with the movie and none of them are big enough to warrant lowering my opinion of the movie.

Watch the movie for yourself and see if you agree: