Unlike many filmmakers before him, Russellville native Eric England can evoke Quentin Tarantino's blood-drenched style without making one that seems like a weak echo of the Pulp Fiction director's movies.
Just when you think England's characters in Get the Girl seem like cattle rushing to the slaughterhouse or teenagers running into Jason's meat cleaver, the co-writer (from a story line he conceived with Graham Denman) and director reveals a few double, triple and quadruple crosses that keep the modestly budgeted heist-gone-wrong movie from seeming like a wasted effort.
Get the Girl
82 Cast: Justin Dobies, Elizabeth Whitson, Noah Segan, Adi Shankar, Daniel Quinn, Scout Taylor-Compton, James Landry Hebert, Jerry Purpdrank
Director: Eric England
Rating: R, for bloody violence, language throughout, drug use and brief sexual content/nudity |
Running time: 1 hour, 27 minutes
Available on iTunes and through other film streaming services.
As the title implies, the quarry is a comely barmaid named Alexandra (Elizabeth Whitson) who has entranced Clarence (Justin Dobies). He's a baby-faced young man who quotes Picasso and Ralph Waldo Emerson. But despite his ability to cite the wisdom of the ages, he doesn't have the nerve or the poise to approach Alex without seeming like a clumsy stalker. He's so smitten that he shows up at her watering hole nightly, even though the most potent potable he consumes is Diet Coke.
To remedy his longing, Clarence recruits Patrick (Noah Segan, Brick), a barfly with an almost superhuman ability to charm women. He can make out with one woman in public while telling the barista to put his drinks on his partner's tab. To replicate Patrick's skills, Clarence starts throwing around $100 bills as if they were quarters.
He promises Patrick an even greater sum if he and some cohorts kidnap him and Alex so the smitten patron can use the crisis to impress her with his heroism. It's too bad Patrick's crew enjoys cocaine on the job and have a few too many loaded weapons.
If the fact that everything goes wrong is a given, Get the Girl has a few intriguing touches. For one thing, Alex is a born escape artist and, having lived with a man her iPhone identifies as "A**hole Ex-Husband," she has learned how to defend herself against drunks and Patrick's squad of dangerous but amateur criminals.
Clarence himself is intriguing because he walks a thin line between idealism and delusion. When alarms go off, and gunshots ring out intentionally and unintentionally, Clarence still holds on to the quickly vanishing possibility that he can somehow score a date rather than a prison sentence.
Because most of the cast is unfamiliar, there's the added bonus of having characters who might not behave as expected. With stars, certain actions almost become obligatory. In Get the Girl, however, characters' faces can be as deceptive as the masks the kidnappers wear.
MovieStyle on 02/03/2017