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‘Flophouse America’ Review: A Profoundly Realistic Portrait of a Preteen Living in Abject Poverty
Norwegian filmmaker Monica Strømdahl’s debut documentary shows a side of America about which many remain unaware.
As the film opens, a matter-of-fact, unemotional voice shares statistics about children living with poverty, parental abuse and alcoholism in the United States, as the numbers flash in simple white text on a black screen. Strømdahl’s camera captures the stifling proximity in which this family lives, the frame always close to the faces of the three protagonists and to the encroaching walls of the tiny space. At the center of the film is Mikal’s relationship with his mother, while Jason is more a peripheral figure, an ineffectual referee between two warring parties, managing to negotiate only temporary truces.
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