Director: Harley Wallen
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Into a Dark Mind
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Plot:
Trying to get a better life for herself, a waitress agrees to go to the apartment of a senator’s son with her girlfriend when they bring them home for the night. During the course of an attempted porn shoot, one of them is killed and she flees the scene to go to the police to report the crime only to be implicated in the action itself. Forced to rely on her father, she tries to prove her own slipping sanity at the event while he tries whatever he can leverage out of his senator father to cover his tracks, ultimately resorting to murder and more in order to escape the situation.
Review:
This was a highly underwhelming and flawed effort. Among the biggest issues present is the overlong and bland intro that takes way to long to get this going, featuring the lives of the people involved which isn’t interesting. Going through the struggles of their lives as bartenders who make no money, the secretive senator and his delinquent son with his friend who are looking out for their own storylines that serve to bog the pace down unbearably. That also causes the writing here to be exposed as quite weak and sloppy, ranging from unwarranted behavior and build-up of the police investigation towards the girls which plants them as being responsible for the crimes yet doing everything possible to try to hide it makes this feel too convoluted than it really should and is a reason why this is nearly two hours
As well, the film really seems to have a troubled view of the central case itself which is the meat of such films like this. Rather than show how they’re trying to corrupt the evidence in order to protect the son, it’s just blatantly announced how the daughter and her father have been implicated without showing this, making for questionable logic and curious sequences inside the police station as the need to keep this cover-up going along. The inciting incident is never brought back up at all either, making for an easy out in the case when her repeated pleas about her missing friend still not being found would’ve turned up evidence of foul-play instead of anything else, making this feel like a continuous series of things happen that have no consequence to it all. The polished look and tone of the film make it intriguing to watch, but that’s about all it has going for it.
Overview: */5
An overlong, plodding crime thriller short on logic and intensity but managing to look far more professional and competent than expected, the film serves an odd function of technical proficiency yet hardly any of it otherwise is interesting or just seems flawed. It’s worth a look for fans of his previous works or those looking for this kind of noir-styled crime thriller but most others won’t be too thrilled with this one.
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