Roulette, 2012.
Written and Directed by Erik Kristopher Myers.
Starring Mike Baldwin, Ali Lukowsky and Will Haza.
SYNOPSIS:
The story of Roulette centers around three characters; Dean Jensen (Mike Baldwin), Richard Kessler (Will Haza), and Sunshine ‘Sunny’ Howard (Ali Lukowski). The three characters all suffer from suicidal thoughts brought on by depression and past events, later discovered to be connected through a network of gradually revealed ties. Meeting in a group therapy session, the three decide to ditch the group and retreat to Dean’s house where they subsequently engage in a dangerous and dramatic game of Russian Roulette. As the film progresses, the viewer is introduced to each character’s backstory, bringing to light the reasons for their depression, the actions that brought them together, and the unforeseen connections between them.
I have to be honest – twenty minutes into this film I had an urge to turn it off. brutal I know and I apologise, but I didn’t flick that switch and I kept my eyes stuck to this only for the number of awards it’s managed to snag (it’s a fairly impressive number for a low-budget, independent film I have to give it that) and give it a full and honest watch to boot. I realised what was bothering me I was watching it as a film and should have seen it more as a stage play; with that thought in my head this film became a lot better. On the right side of the stage are our three suicidal heroes playing Russian Roulette (at one point with four bullets the poor bastards) and on the left their own personal hell-like flashbacks. Keeping that set-up in your head will no doubt help you to watch this film too.
While Roulette is by no means brilliant, it’s interesting and well worth a watch but it falls down in two places and to me they were like a granite shard stuck in my ribs as I watched these two irritations play-out. The first issue is the spoon feeding which the story felt it had to give the viewer to make sure we are keeping up with what’s going on. I consider myself of an average intelligence and I believe the director/writer Erik Myers is too and I would have liked for him to treat us the watchers as such. My second issue is Will Haza (Richie Kessler) – this man’s acting occasionally made me laugh out loud (or lol as the kidz call it). This may sound really vicious, but I did physically laugh; for instance I bring in Exhibit A (around 1hr 13minutes into the film) where a gun is pulled on Richie and Sunny, Richie’s fear face buckled me and I nearly spat my Orange and Cinnamon Tea across the room. The odd thing about it is that Will Haza is one of the award winners who kept me initially watching this film. To quickly defend Will, he wasn’t the worst of the actors in this movie as there are a good handful of them (but they didn’t win any awards).
Not go out on a sour note, I would like to say that the film did snag me and I watched it to the rather brutal end and I was glad I did. Both Mike Baldwin and Ali Lukowski were strong players in this and portrayed their characters and the pain they suffered very well. I liked the film, I just didn’t love it. I’m going to look out for future Erik Myers films as I believe this writer-director could give us some powerful films in the years to come.
Flickering Myth Rating: Film ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published January 19, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
