Disturbed teenager Alyssa (a strong and credible performance by Katie Marsh) murders nine-year-old girl Elizabeth (adorable Kaliya Skye) for the sheer sick thrill of it. Writer/director Shane Ryan not only astutely pegs the depressing atmosphere of a bleak podunk town, but also vividly captures the nihilism, disaffection, alienation, rootlessness, and aimlessness of these empty no-hoper adolescent lives in which life itself seems to have no real worth or clear purpose. Better yet, Ryan wisely avoids lurid sensationalism and brings a matter of fact nonjudgmental sensibility to the grim premise; instead Ryan merely observes rather than preaches and allows the viewers to make up their own minds what to think about the whole dismal affair. The rambling episodic narrative structure works well in conveying the fractured and unsteady nature of the main characters' topsy-turvy existences. Moreover, there are positively harrowing and heartbreaking contributions from Teona Dolnikova as a forlorn aspiring singer, Alex Damiano as a dejected lass suffering from an eating disorder, and Joseph Marsh as a persecuted little boy. Demi Bauman likewise excels as Alyssa's loopy sidekick. Arturo Gueurrero's striking cinematography alternates between bright lush color and gritty'n'grainy black and white. Kudos are also in order for the spare harmonic score. An exceptionally haunting and potent knockout.
Review of My Name Is 'A' by Anonymous
