Kisses 2008

Shane Curry plays Dylan, a boy who is abruptly kicked out of the house to go play by his father, and Kelly O’Neill portrays Kylie, his neighbor who becomes his bold companion on a night filled with fear, rumor, and a longing for belonging. The film unfolds with a tense start as Dylan voices frustration about his father’s harsh treatment, while Kylie warns him about the so-called Sack Man, a frightening figure said to harm children. Dylan dismisses the tale as nothing more than an adult’s fear-mongering, a line that will soon be tested by real danger.

When Kylie is sent to walk her infant sibling in a stroller, a mundane routine jolts into trouble. A motorcycle sits in the driveway upon her return, and a push from her mother nudges Kylie toward a ritual act—she must give her uncle a goodbye kiss. As the uncle leaves and heads toward Kylie’s room to bid farewell, Kylie hides under her bed, clutching cash tucked away in a shoe, a quiet reserve born from fear and habit.

The family’s tension erupts when Dylan’s father shouts at Dylan’s mother, and violence erupts in the home. In a desperate moment, Dylan’s handheld videogame becomes a weapon as he strikes his father, leaving a plastic shard embedded in his forehead. The confrontation spills into an upstairs bathroom, and Dylan is chased. It is at this point that Kylie intervenes, guiding Dylan toward a window ladder that she arranges from her yard, a risky but crucial move that allows him to slip away from the danger and head toward a river.

A dredger cruises by as the pair reach the water, and they embark, despite the captain’s protests, for the end of the line near Dublin. The ship’s captain offers a morsel of wisdom about Bob Dylan, a namesake nod that adds a strange touch of fate to their escape. As they seek a path to safety, Dylan and Kylie resolve to find Dylan’s brother, who they learned was living in a squat on Gardiner Street. Their search is fragmentary and exhausting—they knock on doors, ask passers-by, and piece together fragments of a past that seems to haunt their families.

A woman’s information reveals that Dylan’s brother was kicked out for fighting about six months earlier, a detail that neither Dylan nor Kylie can fully process. Dylan wants to turn back and go home, but Kylie resists, driven by a need to uncover something—perhaps a sense of purpose in an uncertain world. They eventually find shelter in makeshift boxes on the street, a stark reminder of their precarious existence.

A danger rises when a man in a car tries to lure Kylie away. She refuses, but the danger lingers as the car returns and takes her captive. Dylan gives chase, clinging to the bumper with the help of his Heelys, trying to outrun the danger even as the car evades him. Kylie breaks free, and together they outpace their pursuers, finding a new night on the street, huddled in their improvised shelter.

Dawn reveals a colder reality: Kylie wakes to a cold hand beside her, and the two friends rouse each other, only to discover a recently dead man nearby. Police arrive, and they are escorted back to their homes, where their families wait with anxious relief. The moment is bittersweet; Kylie blows Dylan a kiss as their parents pull them apart, a quiet emblem of a shared night that changed everything for them.