Movie Review: "The Dark End of the Street" (2020)
The Dark End of the Street Movie Review
Written by Stuart D. Monroe
Released by Gravitas Ventures
Written and Directed by Kevin Tran
2020, 69 minutes, Not Rated
Released on August 11th, 2020 on V.O.D.
Starring:
Scott Friend as Jim
Lindsay Burdge as Patty
Brooke Bloom as Marney
Anthony Chisholm as Ian
Michael Cyril Creighton as Isaac
Rod Luzzi as Frank
Daniel K. Isaac as Keith
Jennifer Kim as Sue
Jim Parrack as Richard
Review:
Suburbia is a funny place. In every neighborhood, on every street in that neighborhood, in every household, there is a unique little drama playing out. It might not be drama, per se, but what happens when you cause an uproar with a real and deadly drama in the form of a vicious serial pet killer?
That’s the situation in The Dark End of the Street, the debut feature from writer/director Kevin Tran (itself an expansion of his 2017 short film of the same name). The residents in this unnamed neighborhood are widely varied and, yet, nearly cliched in their very variety. Lonely “cat lady” Marney (Brooke Bloom; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) comes home to find her beloved cat butchered in her kitchen. The overly concerned (and equally lonely) elderly African-American widower next door, Ian (Anthony Chisholm; Oz) blames the killings on the skate punks down the street. Jim (Scott Friend; Union Bridge) just moved to the neighborhood with his very pregnant wife, Patty (Lindsay Burge; Easy). He’s desperate to get out of the house and let loose a bit, and on the night in question he attends a party with his friend from the bar, Richard (Jim Parrack; True Blood). Keith (Daniel K. Isaac; Billions) and his wife, Sue (Jennifer Kim; The Bourne Legacy) are paranoid to the point of panic for both their daughter and her new bird. Don’t forget about Isaac (Michael Cyril Creighton; Game Night); he’s just out walking his dog with his eyes and ears open. Finally, there’s Frank (Rod Luzzi; The Devil Incarnate), a man for whom calmly washing animal blood out of your clothing is a regular occurrence. Over the course of one night, their paths will intertwine in ways that will leave many changed forever.
The Dark End of the Street is a movie that plays a deft and wonderfully subtle game with you almost from the opening scene, a game where the banal and the shocking exist on the same wavelength and often in the same breath. That sounds easier than it is because dramas are often too impatient to let reality click into place and show you a world that feels genuine. It’s done for the sake of exposition and driving the scenes dramatically forward (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but Kevin Tran shows a patience that belies his experience level as a filmmaker. What you get is a restrained film where the drama is organic and the writing is clever enough to give you a wholly satisfying ending that covers the range of emotional outcomes across the spectrum of characters in the extremely capable ensemble cast.
Virtually every character is worthy of a more in-depth study, even if some don’t get much more than a cursory glance. The night of developments between the grieving Marney and long-suffering Ian are the beating heart of the film, while Jim’s escapades as he tries to outrun impending fatherhood and the drudgery of “acting his age” will hit you in the gut like an unexpected punch (as a veteran of some embarassing overdrinking incidents, I winced). Keith and Sue are almost despicable, but you still kind of get them. The skateboard kids are my spirit animals. Their jam session is equal parts cringeworthy, scathingly authentic, and fucking beautiful.
The muted score by David Vassalotti is pure American Beauty without the playful aspect, while the sharp and true to life simplicity of the cinematography paints suburbia with a bit of a romantic brush. The time spent with Frank…especially the introduction…will remind you of Joe Spinell in Maniac. The way the film opens and closes is just enough of a wink to make it hard to suppress either a laugh or a wince (depending on how you feel about dog-walking Isaac’s secret). All these touches build something that’s impressive in defiance of a scant budget. The 69-minute run time will leave you wanting more, and is a missed opportunity.
In the end, it’s old widower Ian and the perpetually partying man-child Richard who say it best (albeit from two different perspectives). Ian declares that “You can’t be nothin’ but what you are!” while Richard preaches that “People are pretty much the same everywhere.” Neither one is wrong, for the record.
Grade:
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
