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chucktoxic
Reviews
Deer Crossing (2012)
A dark trip through the psyche....
After viewing Deer Crossing i felt dirty. In the positive sense of seeing the dark side of humanity-type-dirty. I had a very similar feeling after watching Requiem for a Dream.
I'll leave the summary out since it can be viewed on the main IMDb page. What i will say is this....the casting is phenomenal. Ernie Hudson and Doug Bradley are amazing (as one would expect). However, you can't forget about the lesser known stars of the film. Carmela Hayslett delivers a strong performance in what is not always an easy role - a woman who has to be strong yet sensitive. Warren Hemenway and Tina Desiree Berg play off each other quite nicely. Kudos also to Laura L. Cottrel and Sebastian Banes for their performances. (i can only imagine what they had to go through after watching this). The film has so many colorful characters with unique personalities, but for my money the 2 stars of the film were K.J. Linhein and Tom Detrik. K.J. plays Lucas Walton, a truly disturbed backwater psychopath..but what i appreciate is how he doesn't go over the top crazy. He keeps the character dark and disturbing...but still controlled. Sinister glares can be far creepier then maniacal laughter, and he has them in spades. Tom Detrik almost goes the opposite route...taking his character over the top, however he pulls it off with amazing screen presence. It really gives a unique edge to an otherwise standard character.
But what i appreciate the most about Deer Crossing is how it doesn't insult one's intelligence. It's a smart, slick, and amazingly well shot film that replaces big-budget Hollywood explosions and cheesy one-liners that would make a 5 year old roll their eyes, with a harrowing story, great dialog, and intense characters. Much like Glengarry Glen Ross, Deer Crossing really highlights its strengths - characters and dialog. Christian Grillo has really raised the bar for independent films with this one. You're not going to get what you typically see in theaters, keep in mind this is a low budget film, but $50k looks like a million dollars here.
If you want pretty things to look at....watch Bad Boys, or Con Air. If you want dirty, dark and real....watch Deer Crossing.