Brooklyn:
it’s just like Jake Gittes’ Chinatown, except more full of itself. Finding a corrupt politician there certainly
has never been a problem. Ex-copper Bill
Ivers knows all about that. Despite his
not so great judgment, he will accept a job offer from the councilman
responsible for his disgrace in Dan Eberle’s Cut to Black (trailer
here), which
opens tomorrow in New York.
When
we say “Dan Eberle’s Cut to Black”
that is no exaggeration, considering he wrote, directed, co-produced, and stars
in the film. Frankly, it is not always
such a bad thing to have more than one cook in the kitchen—like maybe
here. Regardless, Eberle plays the unflaggingly
stoic Ivens, who basically just binge drinks when not reluctantly sleeping with
his landlord’s wife.
Much
to his surprise, he is summoned by Councilman John Lord. On the brink of declaring his candidacy for
state wide office, Lord needs an under-the-radar guy to take care of some
business. His estranged love child stripper-daughter
is being harassed by a stalker, but the local cops can’t do anything, because
they never can. Ivens is to handle it, preferably
without Jessica ever catching wind of him.
However, it does not work out that way.
Instead, Ivens self-appoints himself her guardian angel.
Evidently,
Black was a big hit at this year’s
Brooklyn Film Festival, carrying home the audience award. Maybe they were amused to see indieScreen
masquerading as a high-end strip joint.
At least, the noir is suitable noir, stylishly shot in the darkest
possible black-and-white by cinematographer James Parsons. However, in terms of character and narrative,
Black is rather middling at best.
Without
question, Beau Allulli is the class of the cast, playing Gunther, a crooked officer
from Ivens’ past, who harbors ambitions of becoming Lord’s press secretary,
because you know how much cops like dealing with the media. He digs into
Gunther’s villainy and his compulsive self-help shtick with admirable
relish. You could say Eberle’s Ivens is
somewhat low key in comparison.
