Stevie is a young adolescent living a rather lonely, parentless life in a middle class surburb. His only friend is Rocky, a girl of his age with whom he likes to share a few whimsical relaxations (like lying on the road, watching the sky and yelling at the occasional obtrusive driver) But Stevie’s mind is agitated by darker intentions, and after finding a gun in his mother’s belongings, he drags Rocky into what becomes a comical but ultimately perilous bank robbery…

This wild story unfolds at a frenzied speed and allows Ash to broach the sensitive social issue of juvenile delinquency through a “game and play” approach, showing how Stevie and Rocky like to think they are Bonnie and Clyde under the focus of TV cameras. Guest star Burt Reynolds portrays a somewhat awkward FBI agent intent on saving the lives of the two adolescents, who nevertheless drive him crazy after a few whimsical requests. The somewhat humorous (and ambivalent) approach to this issue prevents Ash from going deeply enough into the darker corners of his juvenile characters, especially Stevie who is shown as a boy with suicidal tendencies from the very beginning of the film. Pups can thus be viewed as a lighter “MTV version” of Benny’s Video, Michael Haneke’s chilling and referential scrutiny of juvenile violence.

Yannis Polinnaci