*½/****
starring Carl Louis, Postell Pringle, Carl Garrison, Layla Edwards
written and directed by Ferenc Tóth
by Walter Chaw With Unknown Soldier, a film that militarizes the terminology for the plight of inner-city youth, debuting writer-director Ferenc Tóth demonstrates a nice touch behind the camera but an anvil's touch at the typewriter. The story of a young man (Ellison (Carl Louis)) who loses his father–then his mooring, then his home, then his girl–before being shamed back into respectability takes on all the tedious trappings of the new urban template for coming-of-age dramas. The digital video looks a touch over-sharp, even as the rest of the morality play washes out as a series of rote conflict-resolution scenarios delivered without much spark or surprise. Yet it's the perfect film for the festival audience, which tends towards self-congratulation on issues of social consciousness. There is a pervasive desire at these events to not only be seen, but also to be seen as sensitive to the people who can't afford to attend, and so easy-to-understand pictures like Unknown Soldier that have their hearts in the right place (i.e., right there on their sleeves) attract a lot of attention within–and almost no attention without. I'll be interested in what Tóth does next; I'm just not all that interested in what he's doing now.
