OFFSEASON

 Jocelin Donahue     Joe Swanberg     Richard Brake     Melora Walters     Jeremy Gardner

            This is a finely crafted horror production by writer/director Mickey Keating that thankfully avoids almost all of the “impossibles” commonly seen in the genre.  Music by Shayfer James and the sound effects (Shawn Duffy) are as much a part of the drama as the plot.  The music is interesting in that it is often dance music playing during some of the scary scenes—the opposite of what one would expect.  Other times, the background usic is clearly narrating what is happening in a scene.  A myriad of weird sounds are heard throughout, from a creaking iron gate to voices and screams, to clack clacking, to sirens.  Mac Fisken’s cinematography is appropriately dark and spooky.  The movie opens on a darkened beach scene with howling winds and turbulent seas, followed by an obviously traumatized older woman trying to work through nightmarish experiences.

         Chapter titles like “Lone Pine”, “Sandtrap”, “Life’s a Dream”, “The Damned”, and “Last Man Out” are pregnant with meaning and suggestive of what is to come.  

        Maria (Donahue) is traveling southward from New York where she lives to where her mother is buried.  She is with her boyfriend George (Swanberg) and is reading a letter from the cemetery caretaker, who informs her that her mother’s grave has been vandalized and she should come at once.  Much is made of the grave being on an island that shuts down in the offseason and the bridge connecting it to the mainland is raised (i.e., closed).  The couple doesn’t find this out until they are almost there, and they are mindful that it would be wise to get back across before they’re trapped on the island.

            High drama ensues when they encounter all kinds of problems, not the least of which are that they can’t find the caretaker and the town is filled with bizarre people who can’t/won’t give them any information. Except for one creepy guy who is overly friendly toward Maria and offers his help, but he is shut up by someone taking him away from her.  

            Jocelin Donahue has appeared in a number of independent films and commercial ads, as well as some mainstream productions.  She is talented and easily carries the picture in the lead role.  Jeremy Gardner and Richard Brake (Bridge Man) both make your toes curl as insidious characters, one trying to be helpful, and the other truly crazed.

       The ending is well done with a twist you may not have expected and is altogether satisfying.  I would think that most horror fans will be pleased to see this.

 

Dark, sinister events are encountered by a New York couple who have gone south to manage the vandalism of Maria’s mother’s grave.  A horror movie well done.

 

Grade:  B                              By Donna R. Copeland

WIN IT ALL

Jake Johnson     Keegan-Michael Key     Joe Lo Truglio     Aislinn Derbez

     Eddie Garrett has a gambling problem and sporadically attends group sessions for it.  He’s a major irritant for his sponsor (Key), because for all his big plans to change, little happens, and he doesn’t hesitate to call the sponsor any time of day or night.  His infantile demands and self-preoccupation require strict limit setting on the sponsor’s part.

     Eddie leads a seedy life without a job, scrounging around for any dough he can get his hands on and going through incessant winning/losing cycles.  After a discouraging night (through which he always maintains his optimism), he comes home to find someone in his apartment who looks like he is going to call in a debt.  But he has a strange proposition; Eddie can make $10,000 by holding a big bag for the man while he has a stint in prison, probably about six months.  All Eddie has to do is stay out of the bag and keep it until the man returns for it.  He doesn’t have a job, but when someone asks him what he does for a living, he replies that he is in the “storage business.”

     Of course, this is more temptation than just about anyone—especially a gambler—to stand, and although he wrestles with himself mightily, you can guess what happens and what the bag contains.  In no time at all, Eddie’s persistent optimism that he can use the money and make even more with it gets the better of him.  When he first launches his plan, he blossoms with his wins, becomes gregarious with friends, and even meets an attractive woman who succumbs to his charms. Eddie becomes so desperate he goes to his brother Ron (Truglio), who has bailed him out numerous times.  Ron has their father’s landscaping business and always begged his brother to be a part of it, saying he would have to start at the bottom, but could work his way up to eventually being a partner.  Eddie has always been disdainful, but now he is so desperate, he takes Ron’s offer, and begins doing medial labor.  If he works six months, he will be able to put the money he’s lost back into the bag.

     After a few fits and starts, Eddie is taken by surprise by how much he is enjoying working.  He starts reforming, with his new girlfriend supporting him all the way, even after she learns his earlier free spending was temporary and not substantive.  He stops gambling and begins to think about becoming a family man.  All of this is groovy until the owner of the bag notifies Eddie that he will be getting out of prison early.  Eddie goes to his brother once again, asking him to advance him his salary enough to replenish the bag.  But his brother refuses.

      What will Eddie do and how does this story end?  In a very clever way, but it has an aspect to it that made me flinch.

     Writer/director Joe Swanberg is a favorite filmmaker in his hometown of Austin, and his work is generally well regarded across the world.  His style is easygoing, always with substantive points to make about people and society.  He co-wrote this script with Jake Johnson, his collaborator on Drinking Buddies, and Johnson gives a stellar performance as Eddie in Win it All.  I was especially taken with the brother Ron’s character played perfectly by Joe Lo Truglio, which is a rare characterization of a supportive brother who does/says all the right things to someone like Eddie, with a lot of humor thrown in.  He’s a little corny at times, which is likewise just right.  Debez is an experienced actress from Mexico, so I don’t recall seeing any of her films, but she also comes across as a natural in this film.

A well conceived, entertaining comedy about the rehabilitation of an addicted gambler.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland