DON'T TELL A SOUL (2020) (Lionsgate Blu-ray Review)

DON'T TELL A SOUL (2020)

Label: Lionsgate

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 96 Minutes

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)

Audio: English Dolby Atmos with Optional English Subtitles 

Director: Alex McAulay

Cast: Rainn Wilson, Fionn Whitehead, Jack Dylan Grazer, Mena Suvari

In the unsettling thriller Don't Tell A Soul (2020) teen brothers Matt (Fionn Whitehead, Dunkirk) and Joey (Jack Dylan Grazer, It) steal money to help care for their cancer-stricken mother (Mena Suvari, Stuck). The theft involves the younger brother Joey entering a house that is tented for fumigation wearing an military surplus gas mask to steal a large sum of money an old woman who lives there keeps in a cookie tin. The theft is a success until the teens are spotted by a security guard named Hamby (Rainn Wilson, The Boy), who gives chase to the teens through the woods, during which he falls down a long-forgotten water well, shattering his ankle during the fall and unable to escape. 

Matt and Joey are relieved to have escaped the guard but the younger brother's conscience won't let him forget about the man who is now stuck in the well. Against his older and much meaner brother's wishes Joey continues to visit the man in the well out in the woods, bringing him food, clothing, blankets and a two-way radio to keep in touch with him when he is at home. 

Over the next few days, Joey and Hamby forges an uneasy friendship, but when Matt learns that his little brother is visiting Hamby and considering setting him free he becomes very aggressive and threatening against his younger

sibling. The film establishes that the boys father died a few years earlier, and that he was not exactly in the running for father-of-the-year, and as the mother is now struggling  with her sickness the older brother has become the defacto father-figure in the house. That's not great either, the older sibling is a thick headed, frustrated, and abusive presence, while the younger one is clearly desperate for a father-figure connection, which is where Hamby comes in. The pair make a connection during Joey's daily visits and nighttime two-way radio conversations, but despite Hamby's pleas for the kid to call for help he refuses to do so, largely out of fear of being caught and/or being pummeled by his brute of a brother. 

The core of the film is the strained dynamic between the brothers, Matt is a hateful bully who physically abuses his brother, seemingly taking after his father in the worse sort of way. At a certain point the stakes are raised when Matt decides he has to remove the security guard from the equation, and things quickly escalate between the brothers, resulting in a finale that begins to get super dark, but it feels a bit too restrained for what what the film seems to be setting up. 

Watching this I was reminded of another small town downer of a film, 2017's Super Dark Times, which had a similar tone and dynamic. The actors portraying the brothers are terrific, each selling the adversarial brother dynamic to the hilt, especially Jack Dylan Grazer (Shazam!), who you can feel screaming from the inside for a normal home life and a father figure. Rainn Wilson is also quite good, but there's a revelation about him in the final stretch of the film that made me wished he had played a part of this with a bit more menace, but the guy is just so off-kilter (which I love about him) that what should be a bit more hardened comes off as quirkier than it should be, but I still liked the performance. Suvari is in a bit of thankless role, her character is weakened and ineffective as a parent. There's just not much for her to do, but in the end she does fight through the fog pf painkillers to come to the aid her children. 

I love a good, depressing small town family dysfunction film, I come from a rural small town not unlike what we see in the film, it was not always great, the depression was real, and writer/director Alex McAulay taps right into that dark vein and runs with it with quite a bit of tonal accuracy. Set during the winter it captures that depressing vibe I know so well, with the addition of towering smokestacks in the background pouring pollution into the air.  Where I think the film falls a bit short is the optimism of the finale,  when it pulls itself back from the brink, when I think it would have been truer to dive into the abyss. There's a moment right at the end when I thought it was gonna go super super dark on several fronts, but it doesn't commit to the abyss and wants to see light at the end of the tunnel, but yo can feel it pulling back, it feels slightly forced in my opinion. 

Audio/Video: Don't Tell A Soul (2020) arrives on Blu-ray from Lionsgate in 1080p HD framed in 2.39:1. The digitally shot film looks solid. The cold tone of the cinematography that captures the depressing, cold winter setting is nicely replicated here, with good solid black levels throughout. Audio comes by way of a Dolby Atmos presentation that offers a mostly dialogue driven experience, but it kicks in with pleasing low-end and atmospherics during the more tense moments, and spreading the score around a bit. 

The only extras is a 20-min making of featurette with the principle cast and crew, disusing the genesis of the film, the production and the score, with some cool behind-the-scenes footage detailing the production design and fun on-set. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork which us replicated on the slipcover. Inside there's a code for a digital HD copy of the film.  

Special Features:
- Flesh & Blood: Creating Don’t Tell A Soul (20 min) 

Don't Tell A Soul (2020) is an unsettling dysfunctional family thriller that is well-acted and as gripping as it is dark. I do think it's a bit too optimistic in the way things pan out but I still recommend it for fans of depressing dysfunctional family thrillers. 

(Spoilery) Screenshots from the Lionsgate Blu-ray: 

DVD Review: Stuck (2007)

STUCK (2007)
"Two destinies are about to collide"


RUN TIME: 85 Min.
DIRECTOR: Stuart Gordon
CAST: Mena Suvari (Brandi), Stephen Rhea (Thomas Bardo), Rusell Hornsby (Rashid), Rukiya Bernard (Tanya), Carolyn Purdy-Gordon (Peterson)


SUMMARY: Brandi is a hard-partying, overworked, nursing assistant desperate for a promotion at the retirement home where she works. After a night of drug-binging and partying, she accidentally hits a certain Thomas Bardo a deadbeat and recently evicted man who gets stuck in the windshield of her car. Not wanting to call for help since she is driving under the influence, Brandi, chooses not to get Thomas medical help and instead drives home and leaves him clinging to his life in the windshield of her car. While Brandi frantically tries to decide what she is going to do, Thomas, tries to free himself knowing his time is running out.

THE FILM: Stuart Gordon has made some phenomenal films, particularly in the mid-late 80's, classic genre cinema including RE-ANIMATOR (1985), FROM BEYOND (1986), DOLLS (1987) and DAGON (2001). Outside of his theatrical work he's also directed some decent genre TV fare like Showtime's MASTERS OF HORROR series of which he directed two episodes, the H.P. Lovecraft inspired "Dreams in the Witch House" and the Edgar Allen Poe adaptation "The Black Cat" featuring longtime collaborator Jeffrey Combs. After the demise of MoH he went on to direct an episode FEAR ITSELF,  the Cajun-cannibal episode "Eater". Between these television projects he directed this "ripped from the headlines" revenge thriller featuring Mena Suvari (AMERICAN BEAUTY) and Stephen Rhea (THE CRYING GAME). The actual crime involved a registered nurse in Fort Worth, TX striking a homeless man. The man is trapped in the windshield, mortally wounded but still alive, she drives home and leaves him in the garage for several days until he dies. Afterwards she attempted to burn the car and the body in an effort to dispose of the evidence. WTF, right? An act so heinous and unbelievably callous that it boggles the mind, forget about serial killers and imagined bogeymen, this is the true evil of the world. Director Stuart Gordon gives this man the filmic revenge that he deserved in life, the script is about half fact-based the rest is pure revenge-fantasy.

As the opening credit role we're treated to a a cool hip-hop tune which kind of threw me. I don't associate Gordon films with urban music, I think of the great film scores for RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND by Richard Band, but I'll role with it as it suited the film. We meet Brandi, a nursing assistant at a assisted living facility. What a job, it's bad enough cleaning up after incontinent old men but when they ask for you by name to do so? After work she and gal pal Tanya (Rikiya Bernard) blow off steam by hitting the club and tripping on ecstasy courtesy of boyfriend Rashid (Russell Hornsby). Afterwards, Brandi gets behind the wheel and heads home, visibly inebriated. Enter Thomas Bardo (Stephen Rhea), he's been evicted from his apartment and is plagued by the phrase "It's your choice". Fate is transpiring against him, there are no real choices, just the cold fact that he's newly homeless, alone and desperate with nowhere to go.  While he's wondering the streets pushing his newly acquired shopping cart and contemplating the woes life he's viciously slammed into by Brandi at an intersection. She's swerving all over the road and fucking with her cell phone, she doesn't see him until it's too late. It's a brutal scene as his knees and shins break against the car, face smashing through the windshield. Knowing she's drunk and at fault she speeds home, shockingly unnoticed by anyone except a homeless man. She parks the car in the garage and makes no effort to help as he pleads for assistance, it's difficult to watch. Leaving him alone in the garage she's shaken but no so much so that she can't fuck her man as Tom lays dying in her garage just a few yards away. Rusell Hornsby as Brandi's lover is awesome, he's a funny cat and his portrayal of her drug-dealing,  philandering boyfriend is good stuff. Stephen Rhea is amazing, you feel his suffering throughout the film, as well as his rage. It's torture watching him as he extricates himself from her car, a windshield wiper piercing deep into his side. While one can't help but feel sadness at the tragedy of this film I couldn't help but elicit a few laughs at the complete dumbassery of Brandi and Rashid's actions throughout the film. She's always going on and on about how could HE do this to HER -  it just boggles the mind how self-obsessed she is. Tom's revenge is is slow in the coming, he suffers a lot and it's excruciating to watch, but it's thrilling to see.

DVD: The DVD release of STUCK is released by Image Entertainment. Presented in it's theatrical aspect ratio of 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with a 5.1 surround audio track. No special features, not even a commentary. Sad really as I would have loved to hear director Stuart Gordon's thoughts on the crime that inspired the film. The image quality and sound are quite good, no complaints there.

VERDICT: This is a first class revenge thriller/dark comedy with some truly inspired performances from Stephen Rhea, Mena Suvari, and Russel Hornsby.  It was a surprise how much I enjoyed Suvari's performance after the steaming-turd that was Steve Minier's DAY OF THE DEAD remake.  Stuart Gordon's still got I'm happy to report.  

**** (4 out of 5 stars)