Review: RUSHLIGHTS (Unrated Director’s Cut)

Re-cut southern Gothic noir is almost redeemed by presence of two Hollywood veterans.

The difference between a good neo noir and a misguided one rests squarely on the shoulders of the characters as written and the choices they make. Usually, those choices are bad, of course, but those wrong-headed life decisions tend to stem organically from obsessive behaviors, lust, love and desperation.

Without a proper arc, it’s just a bunch of unlikable douchebags doing horrible things to each other without reason or the audience’s emotional investment.

Unfortunately, director Antoni Stutz’s grimy thriller RUSHLIGHTS does more wrong than it does right. The film was released in 2013 to dismal reviews. But strangely, Stutz has gone back and re-cut the film, filling it with more sex and violence and altering some scenes to more appropriately fit his vision (this unrated version is currently available on VOD). We have not seen the director’s original version but the RUSHLIGHTS we just watched is a sweaty, lurid affair, well made but built on a premise that strains credibility and it’s filled with fabricated people that no one in their right brains would want to hang out with for 90 minutes.

The film stars Josh Henderson as Billy, a stubble faced stud who picks up a comely waitress named Sarah (Haley Webb) at a greasy spoon and has wild sex with her.  A few days later, Sarah calls her horny paramour up and, in tears, begs for his help. Seems her roommate has fatally overdosed and, for reasons known only to a contrived plot mechanics, the pair – who barely know each other! – go on the lam. Whilst on the run, they discover that Sarah’s dead roomie was on the cusp of receiving her dead uncle’s massive fortune, so off these two phony desperados go to the small town of Tremo,Texas, where they have the bright idea to pretend that Sarah is in fact her late friend.

Of course things go south, literally and figuratively. It’s a noir. Bad decisions begat miserable results. But the entire time Billy and Sarah are ticking off their checklist on wrongness, not once do we buy into any of it.

On the bright side, RUSHLIGHTS offers two sterling elements that almost make the movie worth watching. Irish actor Aidan Quinn appears as the uncle’s suspicious lawyer and, as soon as he’s on screen, you can feel the film’s energy bend to his presence. When we meet the lawyer’s Sheriff brother things perk up even more. The Sheriff is played by the great Beau Bridges and the chemistry that he and Quinn have together is palpable. Here are two top-class thespians showing up in a low budget indie for a few days work and effortlessly schooling everyone on set as to how its done. They take Stutz’s faux hard boiled dialogue and let it just seep out. Total pros and a joy to watch.

But in between these great moments with great actors, RUSHLIGHTS just keeps slamming us around in cliche and unpleasantness, and mashes it all together with a far too dramatic score that never knows when to quit and let the film breathe.

There are far worse films than RUSHLIGHTS out there and if you can suspend your disbelief and go along with the ride, you might get more out of it than we did. But if you do let the basic logistical lapses slide than may he humbly suggest you watch DOUBLE INDEMNITY twice, just to see how noir should be done…

 

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