Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2016
Images from the Internet
Binge
Written, directed, edited, etc.,
by Wesley Mellott
109
minutes, 2014
Thinking
Arts Entertainment
Most
of us probably know a guy like Max (Andrew Glessner). He’s the kind of dude who
only puts the glass down when it’s empty, which is often, and doesn’t always remember
much because of it, like why the car has a dent, or the reason the woman he is
attracted to is mad at him. The person I know like Max equates beer as “soda”
(well, in his terminology, “pop”), and will easily drink a six pack or more between
supper and sleep, after the whisky and Cokes he had with the meal.
Max
has a drinking problem, and is slowly coming to that realization, along with
others, such as that he has offended the female friend he believes he loves and
wants to go to the next level (i.e., sex), Miranda (Bex Etter), who rocks the
hell out of an angel Halloween costume. To gain his life back, and hopefully
Miranda, Max makes the big decision to fly sober, starting by dumping the hard
stuff and replacing his fridge full of beer with bottles of agua. Note that this is all in the
trailer, so no spoilers here.
As
the months roll by between New Year’s and Halloween, and the clearer he gets,
the more he starts remembering some gaps. However, they come and go in
snippets, and make no sense to him. It gave me just enough clues, though, so
that I kinda figured out some of it. Meanwhile, there is someone mysterious who
keeps tempting Max with drink sporadically through his recovery (which he does Cold
Turkey without AA).
 |
| Andrew Glessner is Max |
Max
is an everyman, even if every man
isn’t an alcoholic. We are given some reasons why his life has gone down this
road through a nice exposition scene with him giving a soliloquy to a therapist
friend (as a side note, this person is the only one at the Halloween party that
doesn’t wear a costume. Hmm, I wonder how that made him feel… But I digress…). The
question I’m having is it nurture or nature: his childhood guilt or family
medical history, but as much as I like exposition, this is my internal
monologue responding, it probably won’t be yours.
Glessner
does a really nice job both making the alky Max annoying, and the sober Max a
sympathetic character. As he is in most scenes, the film really does revolve
around his character, so his strong performance helps things. Etter is nice and
perky, with a charming smile, so even when she’s perturbed at Max, you feel for
her. This is totally neither here nor there, but she reminds me of a singer in
Nashville, though I can’t think who it is. Don’t ask, I can’t explain.
The
film mostly moves at an even, though slow pace as we get to know some of the
characters (which is nice for a change). Even when some of them act like
complete assholes in certain situations, it’s easier to feel compassion rather
than just “I hate that guy, I can’t wait till they kill him off,” like is so
prevalent in slasher movies where jerks = enjoyable fodder to the killer.
 |
| Bex Etter is Miranda |
But
this is not that, it’s more a mystery and thriller than anything else. While
the first two parts (which I call Wet, and Drying) are pretty smooth going, the
film ramps up for the third act, thanks in part to being shot as single-camera
scenes. It has some effective and good looking violent moments (and more than
one extended vomit scene), but it’s not some mystical incognito bruiser killing
randomly slashing anyone that crosses his path. Well, there is sort of a masked
sort of bad guy, but it’s more a matter of planned timing and directed motive
than anything else. But, again, I won’t go into details, I promise.
An
interesting aspect of this film, and I’m sure people in the trade would not be
happy with it, is that the production is entirely crewed by the actors
themselves (being on a micro-budget), but it looks consistent and the shots are
well framed and lit (especially the post-Halloween party scene, in the rain).
It’s
a “small picture,” to be sure, as is indicated by its budgetary restraints, but
everyone obviously does their best to keep the quality going. If you’re going
for the big bang swingin’ by the entrails, well, try Hollywood blockbusters; if
what you want is a decent story with characters to which you can relate on some
level, now yer talkin’. Usually I’m wary about films that earn a lot of
festival awards, as many of them win because of the Festival board trying to
show how intellectual they are – or goofy ones to show how cool they are – but
this one, which has a really nice resume of Fest showings and “Best Ofs,” seems
like a good choice.
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