Pulpmovies Reviews

The Deed to Hell certainly starts strongly with a man – riddled with bullet holes – staggering into a tattoo parlour. We soon learn that the man (Frank Franconeri) is called Andy and that this unlucky would-be robber has been the victim of the double-crossing Sal (Glenn Andreiev).

Andy isn’t the only person who has been double-crossed by Sal and, recognising that it’s time to get out, he leaves the country, heading for Europe. On the plane he meets Lynell (Shawna Bermender) who is heading to Paris in the hope of meeting touring rocker Zad Zolock (James Ian Rankin).

Lynell, we later learn, is having an affair with Vince (Roy Frumkes), the hen-pecked husband of harridan Anna (Wendy Marquez), a woman for whom keeping up with the Joneses is less of an obsession than it is a religion.

Rather than being a single linear narrative, The Deed to Hell gives us three interlinked stories all of which revolve around the same characters and themes. This approach is remarkably effective, primarily because of the script.

This is a very well plotted film in which the various narrative strands hold up very well, both as individual stories and as part of the overarching plot. Although there are a few jarring moments, these stories do fit together in a nicely consistent manner and connect to each other in a way that feels reasonably unforced.

It also helps, of course, that where it matters the acting is consistently reliable. Shawna Bermender puts in a very strong lead performance and Wendy Marquez’ does a great turn as the materialistic mother who can’t see how destructive her Behaviour is.

Also worth a mention is Frank Franconeri who, although he spends much of the film in a hospital bed, manages to bring real depth to his character – the first to have seen a glimpse of what lies beyond. And it isn’t pretty. Unfortunately, this brings me to the one real weakness of the film.

Although pitched as a horror film, The Deed to Hell is more a cross between a crime film and a dysfunctional family drama with some horror/fantasy elements thrown in. The problem here is that the horror elements jar a bit with the rest of the film and feel more like a religiously inspired addendum than an integral part of the plot.

That said, Glenn Andreiev has made a very ambitious film and one that does intelligently address some genuinely interesting themes of revenge, redemption, pride, avarice and the way in which our actions can cave unintended consequences for those around us.

This is the second of Andreiev’s films that I have seen and he is clearly improving as a filmmaker. The Deed to Hell is worth checking out if you get the chance, but I think his next film could be well worth looking forward to.

Johnny To has already established himself as one of the better directors to come out of Hong Kong in recent years and he’s on fine form with this stylish crime thriller.

Following a run-in with a gang of thugs led by Ponytail, Sergeant “Fatty” Lo (Lam Suet) loses his gun and turns to the brutally efficient Sergeant Mike Ho (Simon Yam) of the PTU to help him retrieve it. It’s late and Lo agrees to search for the gun until dawn, after which he will follow procedure and report the missing weapon.

Things take a turn for the worse as Fatty’s search for his gun intersects with a gangland assassination that threatens to escalate into an all out war on the streets of the city. Of course, a murder such as this doesn’t go unnoticed by the police and the CID, led by Inspector Leigh Cheng (Ruby Wong) becomes involved. Cheng is also very interested to know what Fatty and the PTU are up to…

Taking place over the course of a single night and against a background of dark and often deserted streets, PTU has a very noir feel which comes across in both the cinematography and the pacing of the film.

To’s cinematographer, Siu-keung Cheng’s portrayal of Hong Kong is remarkably unique. The shops have closed and most of the population are at home, leaving the PTU operating in an almost eerie netherworld. It’s a look which, while being neither tense nor intrusive in itself, manages to convey a genuinely menacing airr throughout.

The pacing of the film is also remarkably restrained, almost static in places, and it’s with this steady progress through the accumulating events that To reveals the casual brutality of the police. And in the middle of it all is Yam’s frighteningly impassive sergeant for whom every beating is nothing more than another step towards achieving his goal.

Although PTU does feel like a character driven film, the characters portrayed are very much archetypes rather than rounded individuals and, as coincidence and bad luck pile up on each other, it becomes increasingly apparent that they are not in control of events. But, bound together by overlapping loyalties, they continue to try to clean up the growing mess.

All this makes for a very fatalistic crime drama which touches on themes of honour, loyalty and friendship as it progresses, almost fatalistically, towards a genuinely explosive climax.

PTU: Police Tactical Unit may be a little light on substance, but the style of the film more than makes up for this.

Baystate Blues is nothing if not ambitious. Describing itself as an intimate epic, the film follows a single day in the life of an extended blue-collar family in small town America.

The story centres on Mike (Scott Lewis) and Devon (Allyson Sereboff), a married couple who have passed their first flush of youth and are trying to cope with the aftermath of a car accident Devon was involved in. Also in the mix are Devon’s two sisters, the superficially controlled Virgina (Sharon Maguire) and the much flightier Alex (Steffi Kammer).

At first, Mike does not come across as a character you would want to spend a huge amount of time with. But as the film progresses it becomes apparent that his loud and occasionally obnoxious behaviour reflect the frustrations of a man who has resigned himself to the hand life has dealt him and is doing his best to make the most of what he has. As such, he becomes an increasingly sympathetic character and Scott Lewis does a great job of bringing some real humanity to the character.

Devon, on the other hand, is a much more self-centred character and her dissatisfaction becomes more and more apparent as the day wears on. She was injured in the car accident and is clearly still in a lot of pain, but she is also both unhappy with her lot and unwilling to [do anything]. As much as Mike’s wants to support her, she rejects his efforts, preferring to wallow in self pity and regret all of her lost opportunities.

Things start to come to a head when Devon meets an old friend and culminate, over drinks, at an evening get-together.

Baystate Blues does get off to a slow start and this isn’t helped by some overly mobile camera work in some of the early scenes. But once writer/director Mark Lewis gets into his stride the writing really does shine through.

This is a very well written film. Lewis clearly knows these characters, is interested in them and likes them and is willing to take the time to allow them to develop, grow and become increasingly well rounded as the film progresses. None of the characters are flawless and none of them are irredeemable. Ultimately, they are all just people, but people who are able to draw you into their lives until you genuinely care about what happens to them.

It helps, of course, that the acting is so solid throughout. This is very much an ensemble piece and all of the cast deliver superb performances, allowing their characters – and the relationships between them – to emerge both naturally and believably.

With Baystate Blues, Mark Lewis has certainly achieved his aim of telling a real story about real people. Well written and populated with a group of engagingly familiar characters, all of whom really do come to life, the film quickly becomes utterly engrossing.

And the combination of imagery and music in the final scene was nothing short of superb.