American Heart (1992)

Directed by Martin Bell, starring Jeff Bridges, and set in Seattle, I really wanted to check this out. Bridges is an ex-convict trying to put his life back together while being saddled with a recently un-estranged teenage son. Indeed, the scenes with the teens on the streets feels a lot like they are attempting to be a fictionalized version of Streetwise. Unfortunately they feel extremely manufactured, the actors aren’t as charismatic as the kids of the documentary, and they are all brought down by a lackluster, whiny Edward Furlong performance. Bridges is unsurprisingly the best part of the movie and the reason why I stuck with it.