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A DARK FOE
Director: Maria Gabriela Cardenas Cast: Oscar Cardenas, Kenzie Dalton, Graham Greene, Bill Bellamy, Jon Lindstrom, Monte Markham, Glenn Morshower, Julie Gonzalo, Tokala Black Elk, Selma Blair MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:54 Release Date: 7/30/21 (limited; digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 29, 2021 A Dark Foe is a strange and ugly movie, with a plot that's mostly about hunting for a serial killer and a tone that veers wildly from thriller, to soap opera, and to almost surreal horror. None of these modes works on its own, but as a whole, all of it takes on a sense of all-encompassing incompetence. The screenplay, written by director Maria Gabriela Cardenas and star Oscar Cardenas (the filmmaker's father), begins with a straightforward premise. FBI agent Tony (the latter Cardenas) is suspended from duty after finding a serial killer known as the Cradle (Graham Greene) and wildly shooting around the nightclub where the trail led. Months later, the former fed—now suffering from a fear of the dark, which originated in childhood when his mother was killed and his sister disappeared on account of the Cradle—takes a security job working for an unseen billionaire and his wife Rebecca (Kenzie Dalton). She's a survivor of a sex trafficking ring, from which the Cradle has been obtaining his victims. Anyway, all semblance of tonal and narrative consistency, which isn't too strong in the first place (The movie dumps so much exposition, through plot and flashbacks and a scene with a psychiatrist, that it's tough to tell what the story is), vanishes after that. Rebecca and Tony start a peculiar romance, involving her drugging him and him saving her from two suicide attempts and an eventual scene of her dancing for him at a strip club. The two try to save her sister from the sex traffickers, which results in Tony being stuck in the business end of an outhouse. Meanwhile, the Cradle's motives and methods are revealed in scenes that are viscerally disgusting and culturally insensitive—exploiting Native American traditions and history, while also graphically depicting a scalping—to the point it's a genuine shock Greene agreed to this role. It's clear the filmmaker is emphasizing the material's melodramatic (Rebecca dressed like she's from the 1950s) and bizarre elements, but there's no winking satire here—just odd and gross sights for their own sake. It's an utter mess, and the only slightly redeeming thing about the movie is that its general ineptitude serves as evidence that the filmmakers aren't trying to make something morally repugnant. A Dark Foe comes very close, though, despite their lack of ability. Copyright © 2021 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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