Trans

"What would you do with a second chance?" Not terribly much if you're self-sprung 15-year-old Florida juvie Ryan Kazinski (Ryan Daugherty). Ryan beats feet during a chain gang scuffle between inmates and guards, and then braves alligator-infested swamps and sabre-toothed local rednecks only to find himself on a road to nowhere. Further complicating his flight are a determined police posse and a bunch of street hoods, but in the end it's Ryan's dysfunctional familial connections that prove inescapable, and which eventually bring him down. Production assistant turned director/co-writer Julian Goldberger makes the most of his meager resources (handheld camerawork, available lighting, improvised scenes and a minimal crew) and turns out a solid indie, but most of the credit, or as much as Trans is due, goes to first-timer Daugherty, whose steely intensity and brooding silences at least suggest there's more at work here. Above average teenage sturm und drang, this is an optional purchase. (S. C. Sickles)