By: debbie lynn elias
Previously unfamiliar with the work of writer/director Antoni Stutz (who last directed 2001’s You’re Killing Me), after seeing his sophomore feature RUSHLIGHTS, you can bet he’s on my radar for the future. Co-written with Ashley Scott Meyers based on a true story of events that occurred in Alabama, the duo deliver a noirish twisted delight of deceit and lies filled with complex, interesting characters, and plot twists guaranteed to make your head spin as the story gets ever darker and characters more deceitful.
Billy and Sarah are your average young Los Angeles couple. Each on the make, each on the take, falling into the lulling star struck history of Los Angeles, it seems inevitable their paths would one day cross. Out on a first date, the two look like the perfect couple and may well be; that is, until a frantic Sarah calls Billy begging him to come to her apartment. On his arrival, he discovers what spooked Sarah – her roommate dead on the couch from an overdose of heroin. Sarah, herself a former junkie, is in a panic, afraid of the police, afraid of drugs, just afraid of everything. Stepping up to the plate as Sarah’s knight in shining armor, Billy takes charge of the situation, grabbing Sarah and her things so he can spirit her out of town and away from any police investigation. But it’s not until a quick stop to collect their wits that they realize Billy didn’t grab Sarah’s belongings. He grabbed those of her roommate. On closer inspection, however, Billy notes the strong resemblance between the two, so much so that the two could be identical twins. How fortunate for Sarah, and Billy, considering her roommate had just received a letter from Texas attorney Cameron Brogden advising of the death of a wealthy uncle and large inheritance bequeathed to the now dead roommate. Not one to miss an opportunity, Billy suggests, and Sarah agrees, to head to Texas and claim the inheritance, passing Sarah off as the long lost niece.
Hitting the road, the pair arrive at their small-town destination. Playing the part of the loving young couple and grieving, but grateful, niece, Billy and Sarah are warmly welcomed by attorney Brogden. A not-so-warm welcome, however, comes from Brogden’s brother, Sheriff Robert Brogden Jr.. Suspicious of the Billy and Sarah, Sheriff Brogden’s distrust may also stem from him having an axe to grind as he was an illegitimate son of the late Uncle and left nothing in the Will.
As the days go by, Cameron keeps delaying distribution of the Estate with excuse after excuse. Billy is suspicious. And the more suspicious and demanding Billy gets, the more suspicious the town gets about Billy – and Sarah. With twists and turns abounding and mistrust rising amongst everyone, can Billy and Sarah pull of this scam without getting caught? What secret is someone trying to bury along with the dead Uncle? Is the money really the root of all evil and the cause of the Uncle’s death? And who will get all the money?? It doesn’t take long before RUSHLIGHTS turns into a murder mystery of Hitchockian proportion.
As Billy and Sarah, Josh Henderson and Haley Webb turn in the best performances of their careers to date. Both create strong emotional elements laced with underpinnings of deceit, not to mention a believable and palpable chemistry between the two.
But as refreshing as Henderson and Webb are, the grit, depth and real intrigue comes from veterans Aidan Quinn and Beau Bridges. As Cameron Brogden, Quinn plays against type with such duplicitous effect so as to make one’s jaw drop when all the puzzle pieces fall into place. He amazes. An equal force to be reckoned with is Bridges who, as Sheriff Robert Brogden, does a balancing act of suspicious intrigue. But the scenes that really sizzle are Bridges and Quinn going toe-to-toe with “brotherly love”.
Notable is supporting player Jordan Bridges who, as Earl, an officer on Sheriff Brogden’s force (and working directly with his father Beau), adds another layer of texture to the story with a secretive duality and arrogance that Jordan plays to great effect. Always welcome is legendary character actress Lorna Raver who adds her own mystery to the Brogden family tree.
Stutz and Meyers keep the story moving, the tension and suspense building, by adding twist upon twist upon twist. Characters are well drawn, emotionally textured and flawed with each given a chance to “shine” within the constructs of the script. However, as interesting and compelling as each twist and character is, it reaches a point where you feel as if Stutz and Meyers had backed themselves into a writing corner and didn’t know how to get out other than to keep writing, adding false endings and then bouncing back with something else and something else. Where the writing excels, however, and where the editing of Pia Abramowitz and Michael Palmerio, comes deftly into play is with the sociopathic turns by one of more of the characters and the embedding and entrapment of secrets and lies.
Superlative is the word for Greg Easterbrook’s cinematography and Niko Vilaivongs’ production design. Going hand in hand, great thought went into design of the lighting and color palette. Dark woods, sickly dirty yellows, limited interior light that focuses primarily on one item – a letter on a desk, a gun on the night stand – provide a very naturalistic feel that lends itself well to creating shadows and embracing the suspense of negative space. Saturation of color feels metaphoric for the secrets oozing from every frame and character.
Jeffrey Coulter’s score buoys and compliments the tonal bandwidth of the film as a whole, creating a welcoming tense energy.
RUSHLIGHTS – dark, twisted, delicious noirish fun.
Directed by Antoni Stutz
Written by Antoni Stutz, Ashley Scott Meyers
Cast: Aidan Quinn, Beau Bridges, Josh Henderson, Haley Webb, Jordan Bridges, Lorna Raver
