Shift
Cast: Conner McGill, Sean O'Bryan, Allison McAtee, Angela Alise)
Writer and Director: Max Neace
*** and a 1/2*'s out of Five *'s
When Tom(McGill) takes a job as a late night security gaurd at a storage unit. He had no idea that he would get inolved with a mysterious blonde (McAtee) and her random affairs. A boss(O'Bryan) who wants him to stay out of other people's business, a talk show host(Alise) who is interested in his tales of scandal, and than there is Grace but you'll have to see the movie yourself to understand that important character.
This was a nice little noir mystery set within the world of video surveillance and radio call in shows from back in the day. When Tom first meets Mrs Jones (the mysterious blonde) he is suspicious of her because of his issues with his own mother's infidelity. Later when he sees her being attacked he starts to get more involved with her and his boss becomes strangely more suspicious. But who can he really trust.
The cast in this one are all good with Conner McGill as our hapless hero who is in way over his head and Allison McAtee as our beautiful Femme Fatale. The direction from Max Neace and editing from Grant Vance kept this one moving at a good pace. The cinematography from Robert Reed Altman was also good especially in moments where it goes from real to security cam footage and we have to decipher if the video has been manipulated or not. My only wish is that the whole feature would be shot in black and white. So that I would feel lost just enough to watch it again to see what I missed.
The only issues I had with this feature are the needle drops that feel too obvious on what's going on in the story. Monday, Monday from the Mama and the Papas during a montage of Tom doing his daily mediocre chores was one thing, but hearing Pasty Cline's song Strange right after a weird element gets revealed by one of the characters was a bit of an overkill. Other tracks were fine but some were a bit much.
When Tom calls the radio show, he uses the name gumshoe and I almost wish that would be the title of this film, Gumshoe. It's a fun nickname of a dectecive or Private investigator and that is very much who are lead character thinks he is but as he gets deeper into the mystery. Things get revealed that he isn't prepared for.
I'm a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association. Read my bio below.
https://mnfilmcriticsassociation.com/2024/09/25/jasonhemming/
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