PUPS

Stevie, a 13-year-old Californian with the philosophy “Everything's fake these days,” begins his morning routine with porn in the VCR, asthma medication, a videotaped mock-suicide attempt, and a pre-homeroom visit from his classmate, girlfriend, and fiancee of one month, Rocky. But today things are going to be different ? because while rummaging for drugs or stuff to steal, Stevie's found his absentee single-mom's loaded .44 Magnum. It's their key to not-so-innocent fun and frolic, so the kids senselessly stick up a bank on the way to school. SWAT teams and media vultures flock to the site of the standoff, while a burnt-out FBI agent (Burt Reynolds) tries desperately to negotiate. Cowering hostages inside include a neurotic ex-Scientologist, an incompetent security guard, and a paralyzed vet resentful he shed blood for oil in the Persian Gulf. First among Stevie's demands: pizza and condoms. British-born filmmaker Ash sure has his trigger finger on the pulse of America's pathologies; PUPS made its 1999 film-market debut just 48 hours before the Columbine Massacre. A pair of armor-piercing performances by youngsters Cameron Van Hoy and Mischa Barton target your outrage and funny bone in the same gunsight.