‘Liberty’ and life, disrupted

The opening scenes of Ilya Chaiken’s “Liberty Kid” would seem unremarkably quotidian were it not for the caption that precedes them: “September 2001.” As would-be visionary Derrick (Al Thompson) and small-time hustler Tico (Kareem Savinon) work their menial jobs mere yards from the Statue of Liberty, you can feel the clock running out on their ordinary lives.

Chaiken lacks the funds (and possibly the interest) for a reconstruction of the Sept. 11 attacks. But it takes only one image of the burning World Trade Center, glimpsed through coin-operated binoculars from Liberty Island’s observation deck, to unleash a flood of familiar emotions. Thrown out of work by Lady Liberty’s closure, the two friends scrape out a living as best they can. Derrick shelves his college aspirations and joins Tico in a succession of frequently illegal schemes, from dealing drugs to faking car crashes for insurance money.

Chaiken has a keen eye and ear for street-level realism and an evident love of the city’s as-yet-ungentrified fringes, which serves her well until the movie takes a turn for the portentous. With no prospects and twin children to support, Derrick signs up with an Army recruiter who promises a war in Iraq is “not gonna happen.” Cut to a year later, when a shellshocked Derrick is wandering the streets of Brooklyn and sleeping in his car.

The movie’s lunge for significance disrupts the observational ease of its first hour, and Chaiken’s leads never manage to convey a sense of the years that have passed off-screen. It’s as if they too are seen from a distance, their lives familiar but somehow remote.

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-- Sam Adams

“Liberty Kid.” MPAA rating: Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes. Exclusively at Laemmle’s Grand 4-Plex, 345 S. Figueroa St., downtown Los Angeles, (213) 617-0268.

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Tre’s on his way; quick now, hide

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Less is decidedly less in “Tre,” Eric Byler’s minimalist peek at psychosexual dynamics, a tedious follow-up to his 2003 Independent Spirit Award nominee, “Charlotte Sometimes.”

Director Byler revisits themes of love, sex and commitment in a way he describes as “anti-romantic,” an approach that may sound hip and edgy, but, let’s face it, is so 1971. That’s less of an issue, though, than the movie’s anti-logic and anti-characterization, not to mention a script full of trite dialogue (co-written by Byler and the film’s co-star, Kimberly-Rose Wolter).

The story, such as it is, involves Tre (Daniel Cariaga), a boorish slacker from a seemingly privileged background, who crashes at his old pal Gabe’s remote, hilltop house after being dumped by his latest girlfriend. Gabe (an appealing Erik McDowell) currently shares the nifty digs with his squeeze, Kakela (Wolter) -- an aspiring screenwriter -- as well as Kakela’s moody friend Nina (Alix Koromzay), who just left her husband after catching him kissing another woman.

The crass and aggressive Tre instantly offends Nina, which, inexplicably, doesn’t prevent her from repeatedly hopping in the sack with him. The same scenario plays out later between Tre and Kakela -- after she becomes engaged to Gabe -- but with weirdly deeper motivations and consequences.

Tre’s relationships with the women here are mystifying enough, but his alleged bond with the sunnier Gabe is truly confounding. Aside from once sharing work at a local stable, all these Best Buds Forever seem to have in common is their mutual appearance in a bad movie.

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-- Gary Goldstein

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“Tre.” MPAA rating: Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes. At Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500; Laemmle’s One Colorado, 42 Miller Alley, Pasadena, (626) 744-1224.