The Vicious KInd

In "A Vicious Kind," director Lee Toland Krieger presents a poignant story of two brothers, a father desperately trying to reconnect with his sons, and the girl who gets between them.

After breaking up with his two-timing girlfriend, Caleb is love's most bitter critic. His little brother, Peter, has just fallen in love for the first time and wants to bring his college girlfriend, Emma, home for Thanksgiving. For Caleb, "first love" is inevitably followed by "first heartbreak", so he tries to impart his abrasive distrust of the female sex on young Peter. But Caleb soon becomes so infatuated with Emma that he must choose whether to act on his feelings or stay loyal to his brother.

Inspired by the transgressive qualities of John Cassavetes' work, Krieger aimed to make a film that felt "somewhat reckless." Superbly scripted, with tense dialogue and strong performances all around, "The Vicious Kind" is a multi-layered tale of redemption in a dysfunctional family of men.
RICKARD FORSMAN