12 O’Clock Boys (2024)

12 O’Clock Boys

A skinny, problematic and shoddily done documentary, “12 O’Clock Boys” is like two films awkwardly stitched together. One records the criminal noise of the same named boys who are hundreds of young African-American males (most seems to be in their late teens, 20s and 30s) who religiously race through inner-city Baltimore with loud motorbikes, disregarding all traffic regulations as they endangering the public lives and defying the police force that cannot intercept their rampant breakages in law since they are strictly forbidden from chasing them due to concerns over public safety.

On the other hand, this other film is verity style representation of Pug as a proud 13-year-old boy living in an urban setting that is also very much conducive for filming in relation to his home life and school experiences.

As a result of its title you would expect these components to dominate so that Pug’s story emerges as a unifying theme throughout the movie. This is not the case though. The footage begins with boys; most of it shot on cell phones or video cameras by people watching them although at times interspersed with boring TV news stories about their riots or futile attempts by some policemen (Baltimore Police are banned from chasing them because it’s deemed unsafe). Most however do not have anything directly or remotely associated with these guys but only center on following Pug’s life.

If this anomaly sounds strange there are at any rate several explanations why that happens. First off once you’ve seen several minutes or more than ten minutes of these guys doing various stunts including riding on one wheel while being chased by police cars then you really don’t need anymore yet parts of it are mind blowing while too much would become quickly redundant and boring. Secondly Lotfy Nathan ,the film’s young director told Rolling Stone that he never wanted to make any “issues film.”

“Politics movies,” and the “talking heads” that usually follow tend to be disappearing from the world of documentary festivals and cinemas, though further examination may be needed. That said. That is why Nathan has already written himself into a corner as an author by refusing this approach and limited his viewer’s avenues on understanding the titular subject of the film.

Because of this decision, we know the Boys ride around Baltimore but we don’t really understand who they are as individuals or what their environment is like. For instance there is no word from community leaders, black or white, let alone experts (talking heads!) on such issues or automotive sociopathic behavior in particular. To be sure, the community although it is mentioned that at least one child has died during a dangerous exploit of The Boys- does not feature prominently in terms of its reaction to these acts. And again there are police.

So what kind of film does this make? It is quite obvious that it is just “entertainment”. And that’s very specific: a caucasian filmmaker emphasizing black criminality for mostly white, middle-class audiences. The main audience for this movie will be people who go to the festivals and art houses where it will be shown broadly.

Actually, the story is not just about crime. In one scene, Pug takes a group of kids out in the countryside to ride their dirt bikes and ATVs; here one can begin to see how they use these trips as an escape from their boring homes. Would such trips have been enough to merit the release of this movie? or would it be so inviting if these same criminal acts included whites like Long Island lunkheads or Texas rednecks?

But actually “12 O’Clock Boys” runs only 72 minutes though it feels longer than its duration. There are several ways Nathan could have made his film long feature length according to my mind. For example he could have depicted Jesse Jackson’s reaction to the video clip when it was released. Or Bill Cosby. Or Coretta Scott King Or Michelle Obama.

This might become an even more intriguing film on its own. To me, the most interesting part of this documentary takes place towards its beginning when we see Pug looking like a puppy dog and hear a white man (probably on talk back radio) arguing that nothing can be said truthfully about Baltimore because blacks are behind the problem of “little scumbags on dirt bikes.”

That is exactly how Nathan feels about it too and makes no bones right from the start. But imagine instead that there were ongoing discussions throughout mentioned earlier in this article concerning such remarks, including how someone might interpret a film like this as evidence of societal malfunctioning and whether those whites saying they view them as liberal cool (or even hip) were not being condescending snobs after all. It does not provide answers to these questions but rather suggests that they be asked.

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