Gods of Youth (alternate titles Candyland; Run, Rabbit, Run) is your average young adult film, featuring teenage Terry King (James Pizzinato) who cooks crystal meth. He runs his own meth business with his little brother Jay (Joey Pierce) and they supply their meth to neighbourhood students in schoolyards.
As Terry gives off educational info on how meth works, we see a montage of him working his meth and Jay giving in to his addictions. Terry explains that it’s easy for kids in his city to get alcohol and drugs, and they generally get them from Jay. Terry also says that their father is dead and their mother has a fatal disease.
Terry is required to bring a gram of drugs to a girl for a party while Jay provides drugs to one of his newest clients (Anthony Shim). It just so happens that Jay’s client Paul Moon is an art student who shoots movies. Jay starts to bond with Paul and even shoots an advertisement for Terry and Jay’s meth business. Over time Paul and Jay get together more often, doing drugs in the process. Anthony also happens to land himself a girl named Briana (Ashley Whillans). But it isn’t long before they run out of drugs, and that’s when things get really scary and out of control for them.
Like most teenage dramas I have seen at VIFF, the plot is very minimal and shows adventures of youth throughout different times of the day. I’m not sure what to say about this. It’s just pretty typical. The shots were amazing and the story does show the effects of drugs and how they corrupt individuals, but there isn’t very much to this movie. It’s very neutral to me. I do give it credit for shooting some scenes in New West and at the PNE though.