Monday, April 21, 2014

Cheap Thrills

How far are you willing to go to make a buck? That’s the area explored in the new pitch black comedy, Cheap Thrills. Initially, the film is a send-up of truth or dare; except truth is absent, and if the dare is completed, the participant is paid in full. But as Cheap Thrills evolves, it becomes an unexpected morality tale of the societal demands of class structure. It’s about fun and games being just that, until money decides it’s not.

We meet Craig (Pat Healy) on the worst day of his life. He leaves home, sees the eviction notice on his front door, goes to work, gets laid off, goes to a bar, and plans to get wasted on the little money he has left. At the bar, he runs into his old high school pal, Vince (Ethan Embry, virtually unrecognizable from his Can’t Hardly Wait/Empire Records days). And despite Vince’s I’m-in-a-movie-badassery (chest tats, thick beard, messy clothes, dark beanie), he seems to be a pretty stand-up guy. He listens to Craig vent, and even offers him some dough. Problem is, it isn’t nearly enough; Craig is doomed, destined to be a failure to the wife and newborn child who need him.
Enter Colin (David Koechner, a superb character actor perfectly tapping into his dimwitted persona), who invites Craig and Vince to sit with him and his much younger, humorously disengaged wife, Violet (Sara Paxton). Seconds after getting acquainted, Colin starts pitching bets to Craig and Vince. Whoever takes that shot gets $50, whoever slaps that stripper’s ass gets $500 – silly things of the sort. Colin clearly has (a lot of) money and is eager to watch Craig and Vince battle for it.
Once the gang relocates to Colin’s fancy pad in East Hollywood, the stakes are raised. As the amount per bet increases, so does the potential danger. I’m not going to reveal what Colin forces Craig and Vince to do, because those misdeeds are the heart of the film. And I use the word “force” deliberately. Colin, you see, never technically forces Craig and Vince to do anything. There are no guns held to heads demanding that this be done, now. Instead, money is the sole motivating factor. And as the thrills in Cheap Thrills grow more depraved, the film subtly morphs from a dog-hunt-rabbit comedy of greed to something much more profound.
In the world of Cheap Thrills, money is the root of all evil, and How much is the devil that lives inside the participants. Craig has a family to support, Vince has a loser lifestyle to maintain. Is one set of problems more significant than the other? Not to Craig and Vince. And it’s that notion of shared desperation that Colin preys upon. In the film’s final act, we realize that director E.L. Katz, and writers, Trent Haaga and David Chirchirillo are far more intelligent than we may have initially given them credit for. They know exactly how far to push Cheap Thrills, keeping it just on the side of black comedy, careful never to venture into farce.
The universally excellent cast is much to thank for this as well. Pat Healy’s had my attention since playing an evil crank caller in Compliance, and Ethan Embry so remarkably transforms himself into Vince, that I literally didn’t know it was him until 20 minutes into the movie. Both give dependable performances that sell the movie dutifully. But the real show stopper is David Koechner, who delivers a crazed, excitable, career-best performance as Colin. The movie wouldn’t work if Koechner was unable to convince us of Colin’s authenticity. We believe that Colin, no matter how outlandish he may appear, is a guy who really, truly, gets off on what he’s doing. It was a blast to watch Koechner tiptoe between classic villain and coked-up thrill seeker. From one minute to the next, I honestly didn’t know where Colin was going to go.
So here’s the thing, Cheap Thrills isn’t my type of movie. On paper, it seems ordinary, moronic and, well, cheap. I caught it OnDemand (it’s also on iTunes) last week after it was recommended to me by a few people whose tastes I trust. Good for me I listened, because watching this film was some of the most fun I’ve had in while. But it was also some of the most thought provoking. Much of the intrigue of Cheap Thrills is asking yourself if you’d do what Craig and Vince do. “No,” you might say, of course you wouldn’t do that. For that amount of money, at least. Or would you? See, you’re thinking about it. B+

16 comments:

  1. Mark Twain said "The lack of money is the root of all evil." You have to wonder if his quote isn't more on point than the classic one. It doesn't totally sounds like my kind of movie, either, but I might have to give it a watch. Always intrigues me what happens to morality when money is involved....and how some people get off on puppeteering the whole scenario. With this cast, I think it's getting added to the list!

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    1. There's that Twain quote again! Love it. And it speaks so well to this film. I really didn't think this flick was going to be for me, but it so defied my expectations. I actually really dug it.

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  2. I'll have to check this out when it becomes available on Netflix.

    Years ago for my birthday I was given a slim, comedic book titled "For a Million Dollars Would You...?" and each page posited a new scenario. Even though every scenario specified that not you nor anyone else would be harmed, there are things in there that people not only said no to, but I believed them. (The phrase "vat of boogers" should be enough to go on). I still remember one woman who got a "would you have sex with a gorilla" scenario. She asked me "How big is a gorilla?" I responded that they can weigh hundreds of pounds. She replied, "No, how *big* is a gorilla?" For a million dollars she was considering it.

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    1. I used to have that book too! And man, what a great, great story you shared. See, she's thinking about it. Money is money and it can get you to do crazy things, like consider the girth of a gorilla. That's the dangerous power of the green.

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  3. This was a fantastic modern horror flick in my book. No monsters, no killers, just human sadism and greed. Patton Oswalt was right, that last shot was crazy. The horror, the horror. Performances were great too, and the only movie I had to go off for Healy was the awful The Innkeepers. Great review!

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    1. Exactly! I so loved that this film was void of monsters and vampires and ghost and zombies. It was just a real, straight story. That's the shit that terrifies me. Put $250k in front of me, and who knows what the hell I'm capable of. Really, it's a fucking terrifying thought.

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  4. Nice! I caught this last week and loved the hell out of it. I haven't been hearing much buzz about it in the blogging world, and that's a damn shame because it really is quite good. Great review, man, really glad you dug this, too.

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    1. Thanks man! It is a shame that low budget, original genre films like Cheap Thrills can't find a bigger audience. Forget ghosts and demons and found footage romps. This was something new, and it deserves to be seen! Really glad you liked it as well.

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  5. You liked this a lot more than I did! I was hoping to love it, but I felt it never went beyond cheap shock tactics and the fairly simplistic capitalist moral. Perhaps my expectations were too high...

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    1. I think me not knowing a single thing about it helped increase my appreciation. I mean I literally had no idea what this film was when I rented it, which is a rare thing in today's over-marketed film world, you know?

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  6. I had no interest in seeing this, but it sounds intriguing. I might give it a look some time.

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    1. It really did pleasantly surprise me. It's a tough and groovy little film.

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  7. Been meaning to check this one out, but I keep putting it off. Maybe I'll finally give it a go today.

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    1. It's a lot of fun. Not great, just perfectly decent for what it is.

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  8. I have to say, even after reading this review (which is where I first heard of this film) I was somewhat skeptical of this. While I can't say I laughed very much, I certainly enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. This went A LOT further than I imagined it would go (and found myself thoroughly repulsed by some of the latter incidents). I think all four of the principal cast members were fantastic, with David Koechner channeling into his Anchorman persona and showing us the darker underbelly of that character. A surprisingly horrifying little flick that I have you to thank for good sir!

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    1. I don't know if I've told you this before, but it really does mean a lot to me that you take my reviews and film recommendations to heart. I really try to give smaller films like this (and Willow Creek) a shot with these reviews, so it's always great to hear that someone watches them!

      I'm glad you dug this one more than you thought you would. It really pushed it far, didn't it? And Koechner... dude was a beast. Loved him in this.

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