Young Ones

2014

1h 40m

IMDb RATING

5.7/10

308

YOUR RATING

Rate

POPULARITY

Play trailer

2 Videos

23 Images

Western

Action

Drama

Science Fiction

In a future where water is scarce, a farmer defends his land and hopes to rejuvenate his parched soil. However, his daughter's boyfriend schemes to steal the land for himself.

Directors

Jake Paltrow

Writers

Jake Paltrow(screenplay by)

Stars

Michael Shannon

Nicholas Hoult

Elle Fanning

See production, box office & company info

Videos2

Trailer
Watch Young Ones Official Trailer #1 (2014) - Michael Shannon, Elle Fanning Sci-Fi Western HD
Featurette
Watch Sundance veteran Michael Shannon talks working with Jake Paltrow on 'Young Ones'

Top cast

Ernest Holm

Flem Lever

Mary Holm

Jerome Holm

Katherine Holm

Robbie

Sooz

Caleb

Sam Lever

Calvin Hooyman

Anne

Bandit

Bandit Brother

Foreman Jay

Water Guard

Orderly

Border Inspector

Mailman

Directors

Jake Paltrow

Writers

Jake Paltrow(screenplay by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

No pun intended, but this is a really dry drama that assembles a decent enough cast but struggles with a really thin story. Climate change has played havoc with the water supply and so a sort of bartering arrangement has evolved between those who control the piped distribution and those who need to drink! Farmer "Ernest" (Michael Shannon) and his family are still trying to make a go of things amongst an environment of extortion and banditry - but he has one advantage. A machine that can do much of the manual work for them and one that proves useful when it comes to trading for water. Daughter "Mary" (Elle Fanning) has a boyfriend "Clem" (Nicholas Hoult) whom her father neither likes nor trusts, and when an accident occurs on a trip the two men take into the mountains, the young son "Jerome" (Kodi Smit-McPhee) gradually begins to smell a rat. With "Clem" now married to his sister, though, it is tough for "Jerome" to take his revenge. It's all perfectly adequate this in a sort of "Mad Max" light fashion, but there is little by way of characterisation and neither Hoult nor Smit-McPhee have very much to work with as the glaring sun and environmental challenges ram home much more of the message here the any of the writing does. It's adequately enough produced and edited but is really little better than afternoon television fodder that you'll quickly forget - even if you were in it.

Geronimo196715 May, 2024