Tag Archives: Brett Bentman

Film Review: Dance (dir by Brett Bentman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Donny Jackson (Keon Joel) has just been released from prison.  He was convicted of a murder that was actually the fault of his corrupt, criminal-minded Uncle Tim (Marx Mitchell).  As Donny explains it, he spent five years as a Marine, fighting in the desert, and then he came home to find the police waiting for him at the airport.

The only reason why Donny has been released early is because of his brother Jerry (Justin Ross Martin), a well-connected lawyer.  From the minute Donny gets out of prison, it’s awkward.  He has a huge tattoo on his neck and a manner that makes it clear that it’s been a while since he’s been able to let down his guard and trust anyone.  He moves in with Jerry and his wife (Melissa Chick) but he’s haunted not just be his time in prison but also by what he saw while serving in the Middle East.

His probation officer finds him a job as a maintenance worker at a dance studio.  That’s where he meets Claire (Isabella Olivas), a dance instructor who doesn’t flinch when Donny tells her that he was in prison for murder.  Claire can see who Donny is on the inside.  (Claire’s father claims that Claire has a weakness for people who need someone to fix them.)  Donny and Claire start to fall for each other.  But then Uncle Tim shows up….

2024’s Dance is a low-key and low budget film about redemption and I really liked it.  I appreciated that neither Donny nor Claire were idealized.  Donny wasn’t portrayed as just being a victim of the system.  Instead, he was someone who was frequently his own worse enemy.  Claire’s compassion felt real but so did her family’s concern.  This wasn’t one of those films where love was able to magically solve every problem.  I also appreciated the way that Claire’s love of dancing was incorporated into the movie.  Again, this wasn’t one of those dance films where Claire and Donny were suddenly perfect dance partners.  This isn’t the type of dance film where all of the problems in the world are solved by coming in first in some competition.  Instead, it was a film about two damaged people trying to make a connection.

I appreciated that the film dealt with the difficulty that that recent incarcerated often have when trying to adjust to life on the outside.  After I graduated from college, I worked as an administrative assistant in a law office and I got see firsthand how crime and incarceration was often a never-ending cycle.  Someone committed a crime.  They went to jail.  When they got out of jail, they were required to get a job but very few people were willing to hire anyone with a criminal record.  When someone is released into a world where they don’t have any real prospects, it shouldn’t be a surprise when they return to doing the stuff that got them sent to jail in the first place.  Crime becomes a career and doing time just becomes a part of the job.  It’s a viscous cycle and one that Dance seemed to understand.

Finally, I should mention that Dance was at least partially shot in Carrollton, Texas.  The fact that it was shot in a real town as opposed to some glitzy recreation of a town adds to the film’s effectiveness.  Dance is a real story that takes place in the real world.

 

Lone Star Shark (Writ & Dir Brett Bentman), Film Review by Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

There is cocaine. There are shark movies. There are shark movies that appear to be written whilst on cocaine. Maybe the writer is a straight up teetotaler; in which case, he has no excuse for what he brought forth. Alex Magana is horrible, but you get what you signed up for: smiling woman- there’s a smiling woman. His movies are terrible, but they deliver- terrible terrible stories. Lone Star Shark was like watching a big box store of jumbled ideas with Great Value props.

This movie clocked at 65 minutes and had the following plot threads: relationship on the skids, mental illness, sibling suicide, computer hackers, random parable quoting evil people in suits, a ghost, repeated discussions of couples weekend day trip planning, and a paper mâché shark. There was nothing to indicate that there were even in Texas; so, that was not one of the many many plot threads. It also took near a third of their 65 minute runtime to get on the water. The water was a pond- a small pond. For some reason, they were docked on shore and you could see that from the camera angle, but they kept shouting how they had to swim across the “lake”. Why? Just get out and walk home. It’s not like the paper mâché shark that was basically a poorly made pinata (credit to Lisa for seeing that) could’ve followed them home.

I guess that I will stick to the shark plotline because the others were just a mess. There’s a paper mâché pinata shark in a pond that has a really hard time eating people. I think that the time on the water was – at most – 40 minutes. The movie had no idea what it was and the shark was really an add-on the many story lines that were like a bowl of mixed up spaghetti. There’s not a lot to say about this strange movie.

The Killing of Billy The Kid (2023, directed by Brett Bentman)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In the year 1881, a recently arrested prisoner named Thomas Riley (Andrea Zirio) attempts to gain his freedom by offering to inform Sheriff Pat Garrett (Thom Hallum) about the location of a man calling himself Henry McCarty.  At first Garrett asks why he should care about a man named McCarty but, when Riley reveals that McCarty is actually the infamous Billy the Kid, Garrett becomes much more interested.

The Killing of Billy The Kid is a straight-forward account of the events leading up to the death of Billy the Kid (played here by Paul Addison).  While there are flashbacks to the pasts of both Billy and Garrett, the majority of the film is Garrett heading out to the location where Billy is hiding.  With a few notable exceptions, it sticks to the general accepted facts about the death of Billy the Kid.  Paul Addison plays Billy as being a cocky punk and probably comes closer to capturing Billy’s actual personality than a lot of other actors have.

The budget was obviously low (the imdb says it was made for only $30,000) but the film still looks good and it’s version of the old west feels duty and isolated enough to be passable.  I have seen the film listed as having a 90-minute runtime on some sites.  Every streaming version that I’ve found clocks in at 77 minutes and, when I watched the film, it didn’t seem like there were any parts of the story missing.  Addison and Hallum are convincing in their roles, looking authentic whether riding a horse or shooting a gun.  For western fans, there’s much to appreciate about The Killing of Billy The Kid.