Rating: 
Summary: Not a Pretty Story
Review: Another incredibly intimate and compelling documentary from Steve James. The Netflix summary says this is "not a pretty story" -- and that's probably a gross understatement. Stephen "Stevie" Fielding and other people in this film are so messed up and dysfunctional that it's almost surreal, and the cycle of abuse and destroyed lives is extremely sad and disturbing. While we do feel sorry for everything he's gone through, it's tough to go beyond basic sympathy because Stevie has very few (if any) redeeming qualities. In Hoop Dreams, we really got to care about the two boys, William Gates and Arthur Agee. Here, it's with a morbid curiosity/fascination with which we regard Stevie. It's like a train wreck you can't turn away from, and I somehow doubt that Steve James genuinely cares about Stevie, other than as a mere film subject.
Rating:
Summary: Worth Watching
Review: I had initially watched the first 1/2 of this film and almost was tempted to give it 2 or 3 stars only. It seemed to drag on a bit at the beginning but the last 1/2 of it is compelling both emotionally and visually....The director, James, who appears in the film several times himself, has no qualms about displaying himself at times as confused or "human." There is so much to analyze in this film, from editing choices, to sound effects, to the story itself....that it leaves you wanting to find out more about these people. In a good way.
Rating: 
Summary: Stevie - Explains The George W. Bush Mystery
Review: Steve James has created a master work of a documentary that is riveting, depressing, exhalting, in a demented way, and unwavering in its verite styled focus. A disturbingly ignorant extended family with a central character (Stevie), living in Southern Illinois do on a daily basis what you've only heard about in Deliverance and/or Trailor Park Trash type jokes until now. The film suggests, in its construction, that they are all Victims of a system which leaves so many lost in a reality based only upon superstition and primal emotion. Learning is apparently eschewed.
Living in Santa Monica, CA and being college graduates my wife and have only faintly understood, until seeing this film, what has led a nation to embrace an inarticulate drunken (with power) cowboy as its chief executive. "Stevie" is the most powerful statement that I have ever seen on film regarding the phenomenon of the American rural dilemma which has foisted W. upon us.
In our nation, at this time, this movie suggests to me that we have arrived at the sad cultural truth that superstition and ignorance will trump reason and erudition every time. When I hear diatribes on hate radio (otherwise referred to as "talk radio") dismissing secular humanism as a banal sin these days I no longer wonder why. I just think of "Stevie."
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen...
Review: Steve James, the director of Hoop Dreams, comes back to rural Illinois to make a movie about the little boy who became a man, Stevie Fielding. Steve J was his "Big Brother" once upon a time. He grew up with a mother that didn't want him, never knew his birth father, had a past of being abused and neglected, and basically was passed around all of the foster homes in Illinois. The movie focuses partially on the trouble that Stevie has gotten into over the years, and the pending prison time he may have to do, because of some alleged crime he had committed during filming. Stevie's life is a train wreck, impossible to turn away from. It is obvious that he has had severe emotional scars that have traveled with him into adulthood, and sometimes he just seems like a 28 year old child. He doesn't want to take responsibility for anything he has done. His life is an open book to those he talks to, as if he doesn't have any remorse for the major and minor crimes he has committed. When you meet his mother, you start to understand where the attitude stems from. This is a woman, who beat him when he was a child, couldn't handle him herself, and turned him over to his grandma, who wasn't really his blood grandmother at all, but his step-dad's mother. The mother feels that people are constantly blaming her, for things past and present. It does seem though, that she tries to reconcile with Stevie and her daughter (who she has caused similar harm) throughout the film. Maybe she realized that she has made some mistakes in the past and she is ready to fess up. Maybe she feels guilt. I think a lot of the people involved feel guilt, including Steve J. I really liked the honesty that went into it. Steve J. is like a Mr. Rogers, who is so sweet and kind, he seems a little timid at times, but very truthful. He asks Stevie, "do you feel that I abandoned you, when I moved away and stopped visiting you?" He was ready for the answer. I think that he's trying to make up for leaving him, because maybe he thinks that if he didn't leave him, Stevie wouldn't have turned out the way that he did. For children that have had such a harsh childhood, is there anything you can really do for them in adulthood that will bring back the trust that they have lost? I really don't know. Stevie seems to avoid showing emotion, he never cried once that I could see. At the same time, he seems to care about those close to him, including his girlfriend, who is disabled, but is clearly making better choices than him. I really loved Judy (the director's wife) in the film. Knowing her job description and what Stevie allegedly did, she seems to really care about him, and wants to help him. Whether or not Stevie is affected by any of the people who seem to care about him, I couldn't tell. He continually made bad choices, and his temper seemed to go up and down like a rollercoaster. One thing I will give him credit for, is the fact that he never laid a hand on his current fiance/girlfriend, because in his short-lived past marriage, he used to beat his wife. You realize that there are some mistakes that he has learned from. Towards the end, Stevie leaves the house and climbs a tree, and it once again reminds me that he is a child. What happens when a child does something so bad that it's hard to forgive? Can you separate the behavior from the child? I think that's something that I struggled with, while I was viewing the film. Like all good things, this had to come to an end. Not to spoil things, but, it didn't end happily. No matter what happens, it's good to know that people really do care about him, even though it he didn't find this out for many, many years.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen...
Review: Steve James, the director of Hoop Dreams, comes back to rural Illinois to make a movie about the little boy who became a man, Stevie Fielding. Steve J was his "Big Brother" once upon a time. He grew up with a mother that didn't want him, never knew his birth father, had a past of being abused and neglected, and basically was passed around all of the foster homes in Illinois. The movie focuses partially on the trouble that Stevie has gotten into over the years, and the pending prison time he may have to do, because of some alleged crime he had committed during filming. Stevie's life is a train wreck, impossible to turn away from. It is obvious that he has had severe emotional scars that have traveled with him into adulthood, and sometimes he just seems like a 28 year old child. He doesn't want to take responsibility for anything he has done. His life is an open book to those he talks to, as if he doesn't have any remorse for the major and minor crimes he has committed. When you meet his mother, you start to understand where the attitude stems from. This is a woman, who beat him when he was a child, couldn't handle him herself, and turned him over to his grandma, who wasn't really his blood grandmother at all, but his step-dad's mother. The mother feels that people are constantly blaming her, for things past and present. It does seem though, that she tries to reconcile with Stevie and her daughter (who she has caused similar harm) throughout the film. Maybe she realized that she has made some mistakes in the past and she is ready to fess up. Maybe she feels guilt. I think a lot of the people involved feel guilt, including Steve J. I really liked the honesty that went into it. Steve J. is like a Mr. Rogers, who is so sweet and kind, he seems a little timid at times, but very truthful. He asks Stevie, "do you feel that I abandoned you, when I moved away and stopped visiting you?" He was ready for the answer. I think that he's trying to make up for leaving him, because maybe he thinks that if he didn't leave him, Stevie wouldn't have turned out the way that he did. For children that have had such a harsh childhood, is there anything you can really do for them in adulthood that will bring back the trust that they have lost? I really don't know. Stevie seems to avoid showing emotion, he never cried once that I could see. At the same time, he seems to care about those close to him, including his girlfriend, who is disabled, but is clearly making better choices than him. I really loved Judy (the director's wife) in the film. Knowing her job description and what Stevie allegedly did, she seems to really care about him, and wants to help him. Whether or not Stevie is affected by any of the people who seem to care about him, I couldn't tell. He continually made bad choices, and his temper seemed to go up and down like a rollercoaster. One thing I will give him credit for, is the fact that he never laid a hand on his current fiance/girlfriend, because in his short-lived past marriage, he used to beat his wife. You realize that there are some mistakes that he has learned from. Towards the end, Stevie leaves the house and climbs a tree, and it once again reminds me that he is a child. What happens when a child does something so bad that it's hard to forgive? Can you separate the behavior from the child? I think that's something that I struggled with, while I was viewing the film. Like all good things, this had to come to an end. Not to spoil things, but, it didn't end happily. No matter what happens, it's good to know that people really do care about him, even though it he didn't find this out for many, many years.
Rating:
Summary: Becoming Barabbas
Review: Steve James, the director of this exceptional documentary, has had a colorful career. He has directed a few feature films, but most often he returns to the cinematic form that he succeeded at best--the documentary. His biggest hit, in 1994, was HOOP DREAMS. STEVIE won a lot of accolades at Sundance in 2002, when it was released. James started filming it in 1995, and had to come back to it several times, while he worked on "money" projects to feed his family.
In 1985, as a college student, James was a Big Brother, and he was paired up with Stephen Dale Fielding, a very troubled 11-year old. Stevie was very disruptive and difficult to work with. Soon after, James graduated, and moved to Chicago, where he began his career as filmmaker and documentarian. In 1995, flush with the success of HOOP DREAMS, James returned to Pomona, Illinois, and looked up Stevie. He was greeted warily by a 21-year old shirtless youth, with thinning haystack hair, jail tattoos, oversized glasses, a Harley ballcap, and a cruel smirk. STEVIE was conceived as a film that would illustrate how society had failed this young man, but this raw reunion left James quite shaken. It took him two years to return with the energy and funding to continue filming.
By 1997, Stephen had taken the storyline off in a different direction, to a much darker place. He was in jail, accused of molesting an 8-year old girl that he had been babysitting. He had written a "confession" to the police. Later, after he got out on bail, while waiting for his trial, he pleaded innocent to all charges. The court, and his lawyer, offered him a "deal". If he were to plead guilty, and he would accept counseling, he could get off on probation, with just the time served. He turned down the deal.
Watching his eyes as he turned down the legal deal, one could sense the thickness of his arrogance, and the density of his ignorance. Like a child, he did not want to admit his guilt. He would deal with it by just denying it. And, of course, if he were ever convicted of the crime--he planned to commit suicide," taking a few cops with me." This was further proof of his naivete and immaturity. Stevie's crime catapulted this film into a downward spiral, dead-stick, right into the ground. It could go nowhere else.
Stephen's family and friends were the stuff of Faulkner fiction, the characters written about by Horton Foote, and other dramatic authors. Incest, abuse, rapes, beatings, foster homes, juvenile detention, reform schools, and then jail--these were the ingredients of Stephen's life. Did society let him down, and did the system let him slip through the cracks? Probably. Was he abused by his own mother, and by scores of foster parents--yes.
Was he then blameless as he turned into a shiftless drunken bully and thief? No, would be my view. As a kid, "Troublemaker" became his identity--his child's way of receiving attention and respect of the wrong kind from the wrong people. But it was his choice to become incorrigible, and to selfishly pursue his own needs regardless--even to the point of an incidence of child molestation.
As an audience, we were like passengers on a runaway train, white-knuckling our grasp on the seat in front of us, silently screaming as it thundered inexorably toward the end of the line, and an almost certain crash. It finally did. We were safe. We survived, but I doubt that Stevie did. It has been two years since he was placed in the penitentiary. He has probably been devoured by his own demons, or by the denizens of darkness that he was forced to lie down with.
Rating:
Summary: Men's Wellness
Review: Stevie (2002) and Boys of 2nd Street Park (2002) are both funny, touching and poignant documentaries which explore what I would loosely term "Men's Wellness" issues. The former being an individual verse group portrait and journey. Both documentaries will stay with you a long time because they're gritty and real (filled with pain, joy and numbing). In painting a picture of these men's lives we are faced with our own demons and the qualities we're loved and admired for. Instead pathologizing or romanticizing each documentary seeks to understand and illuminate there by uniting. Jeffery Rahn Ph.D.
Rating:
Summary: Men's Wellness
Review: Stevie (2002) and Boys of 2nd Street Park (2002) are both funny, touching and poignant documentaries which explore what I would loosely term "Men's Wellness" issues. The former being an individual verse group portrait and journey. Both documentaries will stay with you a long time because they're gritty and real (filled with pain, joy and numbing). In painting a picture of these men's lives we are faced with our own demons and the qualities we're loved and admired for. Instead pathologizing or romanticizing each documentary seeks to understand and illuminate there by uniting. Jeffery Rahn Ph.D.
Rating:
Summary: Good Documentary of Unlikeable Figure
Review: Stevie by director Steve James takes the journey into the life of Stephen Fielding who grew up in several foster homes. The story of Stevie is a sad one but it's hard to feel sorry for a racist child molester. And why should we even try? The documentary is interesting but if James expected someone to shed tears or even understand someone as mixed up and disturbing as Fielding then the story definitely falls short. But this film is essential in showing how criminals often blame their childhood difficulties as reasons to prey on the innocents of society. No matter how likeable James tries to make Fielding seem you just can't get over what he's done and that he never, a day in his life has shown remorse for the hatrad and violence he causes others. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most fascinating films I've ever seen
Review: The reviews here are alreay wonderful, so I won't add much. This film shies away from little. I would like to point out that some of the most poignant and inspiring comments made in the film are from those who many would call "mentally retarded".
I will be thinking about this film for a long, long time.
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