‘Squeeze’ Explores Boston’s Mean Streets

“Squeeze” is the perfect title for Robert Patton-Spruill’s sensitive and comprehensive depiction of the world of three teenage boys from some of Boston’s meaner streets, where the pressures on them to enter a life of crime become increasingly intense. “Squeeze” grew out of Patton-Spruill’s experiences in conducting acting workshops at the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, an anti-violence media arts organization in the old suburban Boston neighborhood in which virtually the entire film was shot.

While making the point that creative youth centers can be life-savers, Patton-Spruill resists preachiness. If anything, we don’t get enough of the idea of what the programs at the center in his film really are--the kids seem perpetually raking leaves around the neighborhood.

No matter; the center’s leader JJ, as played with admirable persuasiveness by Geoffrey Rhue, suggests vividly what a challenge it is to rescue kids teetering on the edge of an urban abyss. In this instance, the boys who concern JJ are Tyson (Tyrone Burton), a bright 14-year-old African American, and his best pal Hector (Eddie Cutanda), who is Puerto Rican. Occasionally they hang out with Bao (Phuong Duong), a Vietnamese refugee every bit as much a homeboy as Ty and Hector. They are such likable, good-humored guys you quickly want nothing bad to happen to them.

Danger, however, not surprisingly looms swiftly and seriously. The boys are earning a little money filling gas and cleaning windshields at a neighborhood station when a local gang drives them off, claiming the boys invaded its turf. In anger, Hector leads an attack on one of the gang members but doesn’t stop there; he steals the guy’s money despite Ty’s feeling that this theft is a huge mistake. He feels his and Hector’s lives are suddenly in such danger he must seek protection from the local drug lord, who offers it--in exchange for the boys peddling his drugs on the street.

Working from stories written by Dorchester Youth Collaborate co-founder Emmett Folgert, Patton-Spruill suggests how such a chain of events can occur with a rapidity that is downright dizzying, making us feel powerfully the sheer precariousness of these boys’ existence and the huge effort it takes by concerned individuals like JJ even to attempt a rescue that, should it succeed, might well prove tentative at best. At the same time Patton-Spruill suggests with equal force that Ty and Hector have at some point got to take a step back and decide what paths they’re going to try to take with their lives.

For all of its passionate concerns--and surely because of them--Patton-Spruill has created a whirlwind of a movie, fast-moving and exciting. These concerns are vividly expressed through Richard Moos’ constantly moving camera and Bruce Flowers vital score, incorporating lots of rap music that contributes both energy and commentary. But what makes “Squeeze” really work, of course, are the completely natural portrayals of its three charismatic young stars--Burton, Cutanda and Duong.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong violence, pervasive strong language and some drug content. Times guidelines: The film is too intense for the very young.

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‘Squeeze’

Tyrone Burton: Tyson

Eddie Cutanda: Hector

Phuong Duong: Bao

Geoffrey Rhue: JJ

A Miramax release of a co-production of ca.thar.tic filmWorks and Danan/Moreno Films. Writer-director Robert Patton-Spruill. Based on stories by associate producer Emmett Folgert. Producers Garen Topalian, Stephanie Danan, Patricia Moreno and Ari Newman. Executive producer Mitchell Robbins. Cinematographer/editor Richard Moos. Music Bruce Flowers. Art director Ben Dulong. Set dresser William Sutherland. Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 848-3500.