Jet Boy *** (2001, Dylan Walsh, Kelly Rowan, Branden Nadon) – Classic Movie Review 12,475

Dave Schultz’s cult classic 2001 Canadian drama film Jet Boy stars Dylan Walsh as Boon Palmer, a drug dealer stuck with a runaway kid (Branden Nadon), who is trying to dodge the social services.

Writer/director Dave Schultz’s cult classic 2001 Canadian drama film Jet Boy stars Dylan Walsh as Boon Palmer, a drug dealer who finds himself stuck with an unlikely travelling companion in a runaway kid called Nathan (Branden Nadon), who is trying to dodge the social services after his single parent mom dies of drug abuse, while Boon is trying to dodge the police.

The boy is a desperately needy and lonely teenage hustler who finds a whole lot more than he bargains for when he hits the road in search of the father he’s never known. He has a new tattoo on his arm and a T-shirt with an upside down smiley face, a symbol of his hurt and pain.

He forces Boon to give him a ride West to Vancouver, and the dealer has to stop off back home to confront his own dying father, as he also meets up again with the woman (Kelly Rowan) he left behind as a teenager 20 years earlier, also encountering her son, the same age as Nathan. That is probably about 15, though Nathan is small for his age, and looks vulnerable, but he is worryingly precocious and grown up. He has had to grow up fast apparently.

Jet Boy handles a risky topic in a film taking risks, but it treads every carefully and wisely. With so much going on, the thriller plot and final twist are absolutely unnecessary and don’t help at all, though I get why they are there, to try to widen the film’s appeal by adding ‘entertainment’ value onto a serious-minded film that is diligently tackling the subjects of child abuse, teenage prostitution and drug abuse in a human drama. There was no need to add a ‘things aren’t as they seem’ spin across the film, and it slightly spoils it, making it seem artificial when by and large it felt real all along till the ending.

However, the ersatz father-son relationship of the man and boy are just as moving as they were obviously meant to be, the heart and soul of the film. Branden Nadon conveys the boy’s desperate need and eventually desperation beautifully, and Dylan Walsh is a model of manly manhood, very dependable, it turns out, for a drug dealer.

[Spoiler alert] The story is fairly frank and fearless, but it has a happy ending when the teenage hustler finally finds a father figure who does not want to exploit him, a parent figure who wants to look after him, someone to belong to. It is just as well the film has a happy ending because some of it is rather grim, though the warmth generated by Dylan Walsh and Branden Nadon keeps it gripping and engrossing.

Despite fragrant location shooting, the filming itself is disappointingly plain, with a generic score that makes it seem even plainer. But nothing stops Nadon’s poignant performance.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,475

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