Painless (2017)

There’s a difference between painless and pain-free.

(2017) Thriller (Indican) Joey Klein, Evalena Marie, Kip Gilman, Pascal Yen-Pfister, Tommie Sox, Nick Latrenta, Joshua Koopman, Eileen Paulino, David Weindel, Lino Tanaka, Valeria Sistrunk, Robert Sloch, Orion Spinelli, Katherine van Hengel, Becki Dennis, Anthony Ambrosino, David Michael Carpenter, Angel Connell, Jack Dimich, Ayana Adams. Directed by Jordan Horowitz

 

Nobody likes pain. We’ve created a billion dollar industry that is geared to keeping pain out of our lives. We will go so far as to take powerful and addictive opiates in order to avoid pain. Pain sucks and anyone who has felt intense pain can tell you that in detail

But pain has a purpose as much as we would like to live without it. Pain tells us when there’s something wrong. Pain tells us when we need medical attention. Without pain, we could fall down and never realize that we are bleeding internally. We could scald ourselves with hot coffee and not realize our skin is blistering. We could cut ourselves severely and not realize that gangrene was setting in.

Henry (Klein) has to live reality. Since birth he has not been able to experience pain and brigades of doctors can’t really explain why. He has dedicated himself to research the problem since essentially nobody will do it for him – the condition is rare enough that no medical facility will put the money, time and commitment into solving the problem.

His specialist, Dr. Raymond Parks (Gilman) supports his research but as Henry gets more desperate he begins demanding more things from his doctor. Henry’s condition has kind of insulated him from humanity; he barges into his doctor’s office while he’s seeing other patients. He rebuffs those who want to get to know him better – for example the pretty Shani (Marie) who spills hot coffee on him on the subway and is intrigued by his demeanor – with the muttered declaration “I don’t have time for distractions right now.”

He gets involved with a less-than-ethical researcher, Dr. Andrews (Yen-Pfister) who is willing to provide him with chemicals and stem cells which Dr. Parks won’t provide for him (he could lose his license for doing so) in exchange for samples of DNA for Henry. For Henry, expedience is the name of the game. Although he abhors being poked and prodded by doctors, he agrees to undergo the tests that Dr. Andrews has set up for him if it will get him the things Henry needs to get closer to a cure for his condition. Henry also begins to come out of his shell as Shani becomes more and more of a distraction. However, just as Henry is beginning to live, will he risk his life to cure his condition?

The concept is truly interesting but the execution of the film is what is really surprising. I have to admit I hadn’t heard anything about the film before the publicist brought it to my attention. This is a very well-developed, well-written movie. Horowitz takes a scientific tact to approach the high concept and while I’m not expert enough to say whether the science is sound or not, it certainly seems to be from a layman’s perspective. On top of that, the world that Horowitz creates of Red Bank apartments converted into labs, lowlife drug dealers looking to Henry for product and an encounter between Shani and an ex-boyfriend that leaves Henry humiliated. This is a world most of us are familiar with.

Horowitz also doesn’t take many shortcuts with the plot. He allows it to unfold at its own pace and doesn’t rush the denouement. Yeah, I could have done without the voiceover narration (we critics tend to see more movies using that device than most human beings should be allowed to) or the very cliché developing romance montage midway through the film. Otherwise there are no missteps.

Klein does a solid job as Henry. Henry isn’t always likable – obsession isn’t pretty, remember – and his little eccentricities might get overbearing after awhile but the character is never uninteresting or unbelievable and Klein has a lot to do with that. Horowitz also resisted the impulse to make Shani a manic pixie dream girl clone, making her authentic and their relationship believable. Marie likewise gives the character three dimensions.

This is a surprisingly entertaining and interesting little gem.  It will be available on VOD on October 2^nd; in the meantime it is playing at the Music Hall theater in Los Angeles for those in the City of Angels who want to get a gander at this on the big screen. While I was surprised that the movie, clearly filmed in New York didn’t get a run in the Big Apple, the biggest surprise is that I had never heard of this film before. It’s really quite good and you will not waste your time giving it a whirl. Once it’s on VOD, this is definitely a contender for those looking for something different.

REASONS TO GO: The concept is fascinating and is attacked from a scientific perspective. There is some profundity in the script.
REASONS TO STAY: Henry’s quirkiness gets overbearing at times.
FAMILY VALUES: There is profanity, drug references and some brief violence.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: This is the first full-length feature for Horowitz who also wrote the screenplay.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 9/26/18: Rotten Tomatoes: No score yet. Metacritic: No score yet.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Flatliners
FINAL RATING: 7/10
NEXT: Bad Reputation

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Death Valley (2015)

Upon reflection, some parties bring out our worst images.

(2015) Thriller (Indican) Katrina Law, Lochlyn Munro, Victoria Pratt, Nick Tarabay, Kelly Hu, Jeremy Ratchford, Juliette Beavan, Cela Scott. Directed by T.J. Scott

It is said that in the desert that there are no shadows to hide in and that the scorching sun boils away the pretense and exposes the real person inside. I’m not sure who said it. Maybe it was just me.

A quartet of attractive people are driving on a brand new road in Death Valley on the way from a charity party in Hollywood to a spur-of-the-moment wedding in Vegas. The road is so new, in fact, that it isn’t open to the public yet but for producer Billy Rich (Munro), Hollywood Golden Boy, rules don’t apply and every door is open. He is the prospective groom and star actress wanna-be Annie Gunn (Law) is the bride. Along for the ride are married couple Roy (Tarabay) and Jamie (Pratt) Dillen, who won tickets to the star-studded exclusive party on a radio station promotion and have befriended Billy and Annie. Presumably, they will be the witnesses at the wedding.

One thing that is true about the desert is that oddball things can happen at any moment. A scantily dressed blonde (Beavan) emerges from out of nowhere and starts shooting at the people in the car. Rich, who is behind the wheel, swerves and manages to hit the blonde before skidding off the road.

The blonde is a goner. So is the car, which the blonde managed to perforate in some vital places before expiring. Of course, there is no cell service in the middle of nowhere – and because the road hasn’t opened yet, not much hope of any good Samaritans showing up from either direction. The old road is said to be about five miles away, paralleling the new road. With no real choice, the quartet begin hoofing it, taking with them the champagne they were going to toast with at the wedding.

The further they walk, the more frayed their nerves get – and the more secrets get revealed. Like a good noir film, layers begin to be scrubbed away by the gritty sand exposing further layers below. Will they find the road and presumably rescue? Or will the journey there kill the lot of them?

Those who are paying attention to the opening scene will know the answer to that. Veteran TV director Scott has a good feel for suspense, building slowly without turning it into a tension fest. This is more than a slow burn than a quick flame. He also makes excellent use of the environment, giving us some really beautifully desolate footage of the desert and giving the audience an excellent feel for how vast and forbidding an environment it is.

The movie’s problems tend to lie in the characterizations. It’s difficult to find someone to identify with in this movie because all of the main characters are pretty rotten, particularly when their guard is let down after the downing of much booze and pills. While it is kind of enjoyable to watch some sleazy Hollywood types get their comeuppance, from a human standpoint it isn’t easy to watch people suffer even though they may well deserve it.

It is also not easy to watch people make bad decisions, some of them incomprehensibly bad. For example, one of the women given an opportunity to change from her party dress and heels into something more appropriate refuses, and goes out walking on the desert sands in her heels. While I admire the grit of women who walk in heels because it requires balance and a certain amount of fortitude, I would think that heels would be absolute torture on sand. Not that I would know. In any case, I don’t think any sane person would choose that nor would anyone in a survival situation allow vanity to trump practicality.

Another thing I would have recommended is a little more focus on the Billy Rich-Annie Gunn relationship particularly in flashback. We see a little bit of them interacting at the party but we never get a sense as to why someone who is as likely commitment-phobic as Billy would be would agree to pull the marriage trigger with someone he just met. We get that Annie’s sexuality is a large part of the reason but we don’t really get to see it on display except for one scene in the desert. A little more exposition would have been nice on this matter.

Most of the technical aspects of the film are strong, but a caveat – I’m a fan of 8mm, the band that delivers the soundtrack here. While this isn’t their best work, it was definitely a plus for me to hear them doing their thing on a movie soundtrack. There are those who likely won’t think it is the advantage that I do. C’est la musique.

The ending is on the dark side, but that’s what happens with noir. You don’t get many uplifting, feel-good movies of the year with noir. This is a movie about a dark descent of four people who are More Than What They Seem, another noir trope. Fans of the genre should be sufficiently pleased although the movie has its share of flaws. Nonetheless, a fine effort for those looking for some sun-baked (literally) off the beaten path entertainment.

REASONS TO GO: Some beautifully desolate cinematography. Dark ending. Soundtrack by 8mm.
REASONS TO STAY: Lack of sympathetic characters. Some weak moments in the script. A little bland for the type of movie it is.
FAMILY VALUES: There is plenty of foul language, some sexuality and some graphic violence.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Law and Tarabay have both appeared in the television shows Arrow and Spartacus.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 10/20/15: Rotten Tomatoes: No score yet. Metacritic: No score yet.
BEYOND THE THEATERS: Amazon, Vudu
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Lifeboat
FINAL RATING: 6/10
NEXT: The Walk