Dirty Lies
Just like pure hosts, Josh in L.A. is an unpaid trainee with dreams. He picks it up early, thinking that it would save time when he is asked to collect an expensive necklace. While the necklace is still in his power, his housemates decide to throw a party, which goes out of control. The film, co-written, directed and produced by Jamie Marshall and Matthew Schaffer is structured as a home invasion/heist with many betrayals and no clear good guys.
The characters designed here are either complex or downright awful and I mean it. They show what the industry does to people and its unreasonable expectations as most of the characters are artistic and striving to become something and are fed up with their circumstances. The home invasion/heist is a reason for them to vent and unleash their true selves, warts and all even if these traits may not be used all appropriately.
The development of the characters is quite believable considering the circumstances and what was done to them. Since the director is also one of the script writers, that also makes him closer to the story and the narrative development. The plot twists and double crosses that are featured in the script are all well executed on the screen and they make sense.
To make this character-driven film work, the cast had to be skilled and complement each other. Josh’s role is played by Mark L. Young and portrays a young man full of distress trying hard to make it in the film industry. His character being the lead, he receives the most development over the course of the film and has the most to go through.
This allows him to demonstrate that he can in fact portray humans with all their flaws in a believable manner. He might have a couple of scenes that feel a bit strange, but they are very few and therefore easy to overlook. Also good to very good are Scout Taylor-Compton, Beau Knapp and Lili Simmons as the roommates who are a recording artist, a painter, and an actress respectively.
In my opinion, the best Taylor-Compton shows the most nuances while the douchbag Knapp brings a very strong douchebag vibe on his part, and Simmons more brings her talent to her character where she is another character in the acting process and not as much to which was an interesting separation to watch.
Last but not the least, Keith David has a great screen presence in this movie as Doc, commanding all the scenes he is part of. This man is one intimidating force. The film is shot in big part in one house there which is a lovely location and looks to be perfectly suitable for the creative crowd which is based there. This house was beautifully framed in the shots by Laura Merians and was used to its maximum.
Also, the way the driving is filmed, which is partially from the inside the car point of view is rather stylish in a Bessonesque way which is rather nice visually. Dirty Lies is an engaging home-invasion/heist film equipped with a motley crew of cultish survivors in, through thick and thin. The double crosses work and the sub blow up is quite satisfying. It’s well acted and well show in beautiful locations. It’s all about lead your life, attempting to do the correct thing and in one split second, converse it. Or transform it.
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