
On one evening in a decade of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, the innocence of youth and family unravels. Five parallel coming-of-age stories dramatize the stages of grief. A youthful mother in a custody battle over her children, finds tranquility with the bottle. The abuse of her ex-husband still haunts the children; a nineteen year old drug addict, and his younger brother, a bullied closet homosexual.There's the story of the dog; a teen who offers sexual favors to gain accept... (Full plot summary below)
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On one evening in a decade of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, the innocence of youth and family unravels. Five parallel coming-of-age stories dramatize the stages of grief. A youthful mother in a custody battle over her children, finds tranquility with the bottle. The abuse of her ex-husband still haunts the children; a nineteen year old drug addict, and his younger brother, a bullied closet homosexual.There's the story of the dog; a teen who offers sexual favors to gain acceptance, the challenged classmate who would do anything for her love, and the redhead beauty, haunted by a secret, tragic past. These lives and others will change forever on this final evening before their hangout, The Toy Soldiers Roller Rink, closes its doors for the final time.
Leave your thoughts about The Toy Soldiers.
| Village VoiceSherilyn ConnellyAs compelling as an individual thread or scene might be, the picture as a whole lacks forward momentum, as is often the case with films with asynchronous timelines. |
| Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinBetween lots of uneven acting, some embarrassingly bad dialogue ("How do you move forward when your soul is torn apart?!") and too many unconvincing, warmed-over moments, the movie, like its charisma-free characters, is a tough one to embrace. |
| VarietyDennis HarveyThe Toy Soldiers sports a basic competence in assembly that slightly elevates its material. The same can’t be said of the performers, though they try, some achieving a semblance of naturalism, others more inept or hammy. |
| User ReviewAmy RI enjoyed the usage of mystery in the writing. and the way it all tied together. Also liked the visual style. It looked like candy to me. Skittles and rainbows on film - but gritty. Yep that makes zero sense - so watch it if you want to find out what the heck I just said. Also enjoyed watching Chandler Rylko and Kevin Pinassi's acting choices. |
| User ReviewAngie TAhhh those wonderful teenage years. It certainly brought back feelings and memories, and I think everyone can relate to at least one of the characters and probably recognize them all from those times. The characters are well portrayed, often dark, but with a feeling that there is hope and they will be ok in the end. I like it more than I expected to. |
| User ReviewDavid LThe Toy Soldiers is a Indie Gem, especially the award worthy performances. Go see this movie |
| User Reviewmonty2132This film tells several individual stories which occur simultaneously, done in a unique way with flashbacks and flash forwards so you get the overall story plus their individual and intense personal experience. I liked the actors, their characters are believable, awkward teens, and you get pulled in. Worth seeing, and worth buying because i already watched it again. Set in an 80's roller rink, stirred up memories. It is a long film, but you don't notice, and it deserves the R rating.....nice. |
| User ReviewHetty AOnce the movie Toy Soldiers marches into your life, it will never march out. It was meant for Erik Peter Carlson to take the journey, and bring this movie to life. The casting choice for Toy Soldiers was excellent. The movie has fresh new faces of young actors and actresses, playing alongside a few seasoned veterans of the business. Together, they portray the rawness and pure emotional characters of teenagers, family and friends, during one particular evening in the 1980s. The movie immensely captivates as you sink into the midst of the story and you can sense with vigor the emotional wounds of the teenagers and their families, the distress, the sadness, the hope and the love. There are no illusions in this movie, as it plays out in depth what happens that one destined evening translating the good and bad encountered by the cast onto the big screen. This movie definitely is worthy of repetitive viewing. I applaud Erik Peter Carlson and the cast of Toy Soldiers on a journey well-travelled together in order to bring about this wonderful original gem for movie fans. |
| User ReviewErika BEmily Blunt at BluntReview (dot) com says: Toy Soldiers is a wonderfully truthful, cuttingly visceral, look back at a handful of teens as one fate-filled evening, zeniths and forges new, or expected, paths for their next few decades...and, TS is a talent-filled indie film whose only downfall is in its editing; the old "coulda have been superb if editing had been tighter." Story goes... Toy Soldiers is a popular roller skate hang spot for a group of teens. It's the 1980s and each is dealing with some really heavy .points of life; what will their future be. Can they be brave, kind, truthful and so forth. High drama. Each character we are privy to is intertwined with the others - in that way that high school friends mean so much at the time. And, each person you meet reads real. Be aware there is no comic relief thrown in to offer respite from the often terribly ominous tales. But there are deep resonating characters you follow, and by the end, care for. Though, thanks again to editing mostly, you'll need to ride through a few confounding areas. And if you're into a Oscar (r) fantasy league of our future thespians you can cull a couple from here. As there are probably three about-to-be great character actors plating upon the frames and maybe even a mass product star thrown in. For their work one should see the film. Jeanette May Steiner, as Layla, and Najarra Townsend, as Angel, both turn their stereotype-on-paper role into layered infused women facing one helluva dark and stormy future...unless they can claw their ways out of their cruelly inflicted teen personas and fast. The performances are compelling - and in a big ensemble no less. Samuel Nolan plays the high school's "queer." His work in sharing the inner-boil any young person feels as an outcast who is whispered about and taunted will break and then warm the coldest of viewers' hearts. The maybe movie star? Chandler Rylko, as Elliot Harris, who even did a role as an Ashton Kutcher look alike before showing he can actually act here; a mansteak cutie with talent. Toy Soldiers high drama is well executed and the words spoken so real you feel like you're intruding. The lives of these heading-to-adulthood-at-a-clip characters can be hard to watch, emotionally speaking; if you have a soul. Yet, the film's end, when writer/ director Erik Peter Carlson tags on a documentary-styled here's-what-happened-after blurb sentence on each, you realize why they seemed so real, this may just be a part of his own teen experience and his interpretation of a few of the people who populated it. Which is why it read so, but, wow, these kids had it pretty rough. This is a director to watch. When he learns the art of the edit? Yeah. A possible force. Snack recommendation: Get the mega-junior mints and cookie dough nuggets; you're going to want sugary happy-place treats. |
| User ReviewCarl LToo long, too aggressive, but turns out dull plus disjointed. |