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The first thing I noticed while watching The Dirties, other than the fact that it was somehow a found footage film, was that it basically has the same premise as We Need to Talk About Kevin, although Matt and Kevin have very different psychological issues. What Kevin has over The Dirties, however, is that it goes into much more depth concerning the psychological backstory regarding violence and the issues surrounding the perpetrator of the acts. We don't have much to go by in The Dirties, but it's enough to warrant some concern for the main character.
I liked the fact that the directors decided to go with a "found footage" aspect of the film, although it could be argued that it's more of a pseudo-documentary style rather than first-person shaky cam footage. Think What We Do in the Shadows, but less vampires and more teenage angst.
Matt and Owen are two gigantic cinephiles, working on a movie in their school that they titled The Dirties (very self-aware, I know). "The dirties" are the nicknames that Matt gives to anyone who bullies them or hurts them (physically or emotionally) at school. These people basically make life at school for the two a living hell, and it makes me thankful to the heavens that I was never put into a public school. I honestly don't know if I could've survived public school life, even though the violence in bullying movies such as this one are probably at least a little over-dramatized.
I loved that the pair constantly made references to other popular films. Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, The Godfather, and many more films are subtly or blatantly referenced, and I always appreciate films that are self-aware like this one is. My favorite reference would have to be the end credits sequence, where basically every popular credits sequence in film history is used before they start rolling. It gave a more classy feeling to the overall film, and I felt right at home with fellow cinephiles, even though they were only on screen.
Maybe I'm a little too generous with films that are about films. You have to admit though, the medium is pretty broad and can bring in some really creative ideas. The Dirties just may be the most original found footage film I've seen since Chronicle, and its subject matter seemed wholly appropriate for the film style. Even though I believe that We Need to Talk About Kevin dealt with the same subject matter in a much more thorough and appropriate way, The Dirties is a great film in its own right. It isn't really explained why a camera crew is following the two around to begin with (maybe Matt wanted to include a "making of" documentary in his film) but it was still nice to see nonetheless. It's mercifully short, but fun at the same time, and a little disturbing in the end.