Review: The Long Way Back

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

The Long Way Back (aka Pacing the Cage)
Directed by EB Hughes
EBFilms; Breaking Glass Pictures
72 minutes, 2020
https://www.facebook.com/The-Long-Way-Back-552584021456390/

The opening shot is not only beautiful in a harsh way, but sets up the mood right from the start. We see a close-up of barbed wire on a wall, with a clear blue sky, the sound of the wind howling and the soundtrack piano plinking.

Denny Dale Bess

We are at first silently introduced to the protagonist of the story, Max (Denny Dale Bess) as he gets out a prison just west of Atlantic City after six months, and heads back to his old haunts in Alphabet City, on the Lower East Side (LES) of Manhattan. I remember once driving around there with a member of the Dead Boys and his new band, in the early 1980s, and he made me stop and jumped out so he could cop (I found that out later). That’s the kind of neighborhood we are talking about. Max is a seriously flawed human: an addict who is still using, but he claims he is trying to straighten up as he moves into a fleabag hotel. There he meets a neighbor on his way in, Sara (Reyna Kahan).

Mark Borkowski, Ron Rey

Max wants to “move forward,” but there are things holding him back, such as his addiction, and the fact that he ripped off his supplier, “Uptown” Lucius (award-winning playwright Mark Borkowski, giving off a Harvey Keitel vibe) for 20 grand just before he went to jail. So, you can see it is like that iconic line from The Godfather: Part III (1990), when Pacino laments, “Just when I thought I was out, they pullme back in!” Violent and controlling, Lucius has sent out his right-hand man, Johnnie (Ron Rey) to “fetch” Max to settle the score.

The main thread is following Max and Lucius as they spin around each other, with the connection being Johnnie. As the film goes on, the revolving gets tighter and tighter, until they start to collide, as one would expect.

Reyna Kahan

However, expectation here is wisely kept so the viewer (i.e., me) has one anticipates where the film is going, and then, where it actually does follow. Meanwhile, Max keeps trying to improve, and Lucius continues down into the spiral. Also following these men are their relationships, which reflect their current positions. It is all very engaging, watching this cat and mouse game and how it affects those around it.

New York City is practically one of the characters in the story, sometimes appearing beautiful, others leaning more towards how it looked and felt in Taxi Driver (1976). I marveled at how beautiful and ugly the city can be, having moods just like a person. There are some keynote locations used, such as the Landmark Tavern, deep in Hell’s Kitchen. While I have never been inside, I have passed it many a time.

In the neither-here-nor-there rhetorical question department, why is it that nearly any movie that shows someone walking “uptown” (e.g., Upper East – or West – Side), at some point they will be walking under some building scaffolding? Also, in the Special Thanks section of the credits, it is nice to see my old Jersey-based fanzine publisher/editor/writer acquaintance Chip Lamey listed. But I digress…

It is easy to tell the director was heavily influenced by the early, gritty works of Martin Scorsese, such as Mean Streets (1973); there is also a hint of the up-close-and-personal unflinching of Abel Ferrara’s The Bad Lieutenant (1992). Like those, this film is more character based than anything else, with subtle violence and reactions that get under the skin.

Sayra Player, Rey

There are a few interesting secondary characters, such as the manager of the hotel and Max’s friend, Ziggy (Don Striano) and especially Lucius’s tweaking coke-head girlfriend, Mona (excellently portrayed by Sayra Player). She had a stand-out scene with Johnnie that, to me, is an anchor example of good acting and writing in the film. That is not to say the rest of the cast is slacking in any kind of way. Everyone does a bang-up job, which is a rarity in independent, low-budget cinema. If this was released in the ‘80s, it could have easily had played at either art house or mainstream cinemas.

Cinematographer William J. Murray is worth noting, as well. This is especially true in the lighting, such as in Lucius’s apartment, a beautiful mix of shadows and light.

This crime drama is understated in what one might expect, and I liked it even more for that. Rather than an overladen, too long ego-trip, it is short, succinct, and gets the job done. Like I said, it’s more based on the personality of the characters than anything else, which is quite refreshing.