AMERICAN VIOLENCE

       

        Is the death penalty justified punishment or merely a perpetuation of a cycle of violence that has become so ingrained in American society that it can’t be stopped? It’s a theme commonly returned to in fiction and film, including the remarkably incompetent “American Violence,” which pretends to be interested in exploring complex issues about how violence begets violence but is so poorly made that one has push their way past so much amateurish filmmaking just to find an issue or two worth discussing. This is a bizarrely inept film, one that includes dialogue that most teenagers would have edited and a plot that strains credulity at every turn. There are plenty of true stories that one could use to shine a light on the arguably hypocrisy of a system that takes an eye for an eye, but “American Violence” seems defiantly unconcerned with addressing the actual issues at play, delivering a generic crime thriller instead. And a bad one at that