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STEVIE Send This Review to a Friend
Steve James, who scored strongly with the basketball film "Hoop Dreams," has reached into his life experience to come up with a documentary exploring the life of one Stevie Fielding, who had a troubled childhood in rural Pomona, Illinois, and went on to a troubled adulthood. James had taken a personal interest in Stevie when he was 11 by serving as a Big Brother to him as part of a program to help youngsters in need. Time passed, and James grew apart from Stevie, and then, when they reconnected in 1995 and Stevie was 24, James began to do this film.
The years have not been kind to Stevie, who developed a long arrest record. The film also deals with his being accused of child molestation. He comes across as someone who doesn't have a firm grasp of the wrongs he has done. He is regretful in some ways, but defensive in others. The explanation, as in so many other cases, is that he was subjected to a terrible childhood that shaped his emotions and his attitude.
Interestingly, he has a girlfriend, who is somewhat backward, but who is loyal to him and a good influence on him. She seems to be needy herself, and there is something touching about this twosome. Fielding follows his subject and those around him in detail. There is only so much of Stevie that one can take, given the persistent problems and the mess he has been in, but although the film might have been advantageously shortened, James has created a fascinating and disturbing work.
What gives added interest is the portrait of Stevie's environment, including the trailer-type existence that reflects a certain part of Americana, a part that can spawn a Stevie, and Fielding successfully captures the world in which Stevie struggles, which includes portraits of those with a close place in his life. The director doesn't attempt to put a rosy glow on reality. The prognosis for Stevie's transformation isn't exactly an optimistic one. A Lion's Gate Films release.
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