Bad Reputation review
By Tony Farinella
September 3, 2006 - 17:19
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One of the positives of being a film critic before a filmmaker is you have seen all the movies. Literally. You see up to 6 a week at the weekly press screenings. You get a handful of DVDs sent to you in the mail. You go to all the film festivals and see more movies then you can count. You have seen what works, what does not work, and what provokes certain emotions in you. So when it is time to write, direct, and be apart of your own film, you know what to do.
Jim Hemphill must have been one damn good film critic. Since he has written and directed a revenge/horror film that works and works well.
Angelique Hennessy stars as Michelle, who is your shy but cute wallflower. She spends her time reading Henry Miller under trees and enjoys the company of herself. When Aaron (Jerad Anderson) approaches her and is unusually kind, she is taken aback. He is your built, rich jock with rich parents who give him the house often while they are away making money. Something funny happened along the way during this encounter though. The speech is smart, self-referential, and does not insult your intelligence.
He mentions to her during their conversation a Freddy Prince Jr. movie in 'She's All That.' What was funny about this was I was thinking the exact same thing. It had the start of a 'Can't Hardly Wait', 'She's All that' formula, but then we get taken into territories similar to David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet' and Eli Roth's 'Hostel.' Nothing appears as it seems and we are about to meet some dark realms and dark people.
His intention of talking to her was to invite her to a party and then gang rape her with his buddies. The aforementioned gang rape scene is hard to watch and it evoked the same emotions in me that the rape scene in 'Blue Velvet' did. I was saddened, upset, and feeling hopeless. If a film can evoke that many emotions in me, it is doing something right. After this happens, she is labeled the school slut. She cannot tell anyone what really occurred because no one believes her. Even her mother is not on her side.
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She even attempts to go to the school counselor, but he is more interested in viewing her breasts then helping her. He gives Dr. Phil like advice such as "quit being a victim" and "take responsibilities for your own actions." Since no one is willing to help, it is time to take things into her own hands. Then we go from 'She's All That' to 'Blue Velvet' then to 'Scream' slasher territory.
She decides to pick them off one by one and get her revenge. She takes on the role of the school slut to lure these men into brutal, brutal deaths. The first guy gets his dinger slashed off and gay magazines stuffed in his car. Another guy who likes kinky sex ends up having that turned against him. I'm never letting a girl tie me up again. Even the bitches of the horny guys get theirs. No stone is left unturned.
I don't want to give too much away but the film ends in 'Carlito's Way' fashion with flashing lights, bodies all over, and a great musical score. I'm starting to think this Jim guy went through my DVD collection and found some of my favorite films and put his own unique twist on it.
There is a lot to like here. It hits a lot of notes. Light comedy, dark drama, and slasher horror. It is able to hit all of these tones without being too much or all over the map. He goes through all three tones with relative ease. The performances by Angelique Hennessy and Jerad Anderson were on target. Angelique really puts herself out there and is essentially playing two roles. Shy wallflower and dangerous vixen. She goes back and forth between both roles like it was nothing. Jerad is also a great movie villain as god, I cheered when he died. I hated that guy. Job well done, I say.
'Bad Reputation' is a labor of love. Love for good movies. Love for well-written speech. Love for the cinema.
-Tony Farinella
Grade: A
For more information about the film, where it will be screened, and how to see it, check out their website: http://www.badreputationmovie.com/