By Jamie Brownlie
Oh, look. Ben’s sent me another movie. What am I in store for this time? It’s definitely going to be micro-budget, that’s a given. Oh, and it’s going to be a horror movie, this is Brutal As Hell after all. But what kind of micro-budget horror movie is the question? Dear Lord, don’t let it be found footage. Please, God, no found footage.
Micro-budgets are always horror. Sometimes they mix in comedy, but they’re always horror. Fledgling movie makers are drawn to horror like pedophiles to playgrounds. All you need is a killer, a victim, a weapon and a bucket of fake blood. Throw in some boobs and you’re golden. With a (very) little bit of money, a bunch of friends and a modicum of knowledge, a wannabe filmmaker can whip out a full length movie over the course of a weekend.
Wait a second, this isn’t horror. This is a… crime movie? It’s a micro-budget movie, but it’s not horror. I’m officially befuddled.
Billy and Steve (Brandon Galatz and Graham Jenkins, respectively) have a problem. They owe Tyvan, a less than understanding drug dealer, a large chunk of cash for a quarter pound of weed he fronted them. For those of you unfamiliar with the weed game, a quarter pound is a good sized chunk of weed. Sadly, our duo didn’t listen to enough N.W.A. and didn’t know you shouldn’t get high off your own supply. Yes, instead of selling the weed, they smoked it. Now Tyvan wants his money. Now. In a moment of desperation they decide to get the money by knocking over a car wash for the week’s worth of lottery tickets sales it has in the safe. Rounding out their crew is the sketchy Mary Lou (Alexis Martino) and Byrdy (Zane Byrdy), the getaway driver.
A micro-budget crime movie. Weird. I’m actually going to go one step further and call this a hard-boiled, micro-budget film noir. Now before you start rolling your eyes, I’m not saying this is the next Touch of Evil, but the elements are all there. You’ve got the rundown city settings, the violent criminals, the femme fatale, the bad guy hero who’s not quite as bad as the really bad guys, and most importantly, the feeling that shit’s going to go wrong in a very bad way.
A micro-budget film noir is a big undertaking. For most films of this budgetary level the story is secondary. Usually it’s about the kills or the gore or the boobs. Definitely, not about the story. However, with a crime flick it’s all about the story, and this one actually does a pretty decent job with it. The characters are well fleshed out and you understand them and their motivations, as fucked up as they may be. There’s enough plot twists, back stabbings and double dealings to keep you interested and on your toes. The acting is also pretty spot on, particularly from Martino who is excellent as the manipulative, drug addled Mary Lou.
On to the bad…
I’m always leery when a movie puts a band’s name in the opening credits. It usually means that at some point the movie is going to descend into the realm of music video. This movie had three bands in the opening credits and numerous music video moments. Sometimes these moments can work for a movie, usually in comedies. However, in this case it just kills the foreboding tone the movie has spent precious time building up. And speaking of tone, it’s all over the place in this thing. 90% of the time it’s deadly serious and then when you least expect it, they throw in something that’s completely out of place. At one point they put a counter on the screen showing the number of times they drop the f-bomb in the scene. Why? It’s pointless, not funny and brings you out of the drama developing on the screen. Another case in point: in an effort to get information form Mary Lou, Tyvan threatens to have his boys rape her, or as he puts it “run a train.” His boys come over and drop their pants. We see them from behind, from the waist down, in their old beat-up, saggy, dingy boxers. If it was meant to be funny, it fails badly. If it was serious, it is the most ineffective, non-threatening scene involving the threat of rape ever filmed. Also, Tyvan, the drug dealer, sucks. Pure and simple. They try to sell him as this scary, ruthless thug but then make him a ridiculous, white boy rapper who delivers half of his lines in horrible, horrible rhymes. Sean Patrick Leonard, the actor who portrays him, isn’t terrible and does a capable job when he isn’t spitting verse, but as a rapping drug dealer, he comes across as a bad retread of Alien from Spring Breakers.
So yeah, for every silver lining there’s a dark cloud. This movie is a perfect balance of good and bad. The story, writing and acting are all above average at some points, but the tone is uneven, the last act drags immensely and the ending kind of sucks. It makes sense, it just kind of sucks. Would I recommend it? If you like micro-budget films and are looking for something truly different, then yes. Would I watch it again? No, probably not, and I feel weird saying that because there is a lot of good in this film, it’s just in the shadow of all the bad.
Sweet Leaf is out on DVD and VOD in the US on 23rd June, from Wild Eye Releasing.