“Poor Boy” is the tale of two misfit brothers living in boat in the middle of the desert who barely get by with half-baked plans and small-time thievery. The story is often guided by the brothers delusions and unique brand of logic, which opens first time feature film director Robert Scott Wildes to create a playful visual world with bold uses of cinematic language.
From the hard-charging pacing, to the offbeat visual humor, to widescreen images of the dessert landscape, to a dreamlike world where what is real isn’t always clear, “Poor Boy” announces Wildes as director independent film fans need to keep an eye on. Indiewire recently caught up with Wildes to learn more about the new director who before Tribeca hadn’t been on anyone’s radar.
The American Film Institute, as well as the Purchase College Film Conservatory, were both influential in my development. Essential really. I learned so much from my professors and just as much from my fellow classmates. If I had to simplify it, I would say, Purchase encouraged me to express myself and AFI taught me how to realize that expression. It’s a curious place, film school; you’re buried in a bubble of discourse for a concentrated amount of time and then set free into a world that could care less. I like that. I like having collaborators who went through the circuit with me. We speak the same language. We’re in this together.

I think I had to convince myself the movie was real. Agents thought it was a practical joke when I sent offers for actors to play a character called Prickface. But as soon as I started to really believe in the project, other people did as well, and then it started to come together. I emailed the script to my close friends, who in turn would share it with their friends. Eventually, after several months, we had a nice assembly of actors willing to come play with us and make this movie.

Sometimes you listen to the desert. Sometimes it talks. Sometimes you’re alive in the 21st century and you watch animals run into walls.

If you love what you’re making, that energy is contagious. When my daughter starts dancing, I dance. Exciting cinema has never been dependent on resources. You look at what you have stacked in the back of a truck, piece it together, and start waving it around. It’s a totally insane and maddening process that no one will ever be able to define.
“Poor Boy” premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
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Check out another Tribeca premiere below, with a clip from “The Last Laugh”:
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