Hey everybody... Harry here with our first look at John Dahl's SQUELCH. If you are unfamiliar with his work.... then get familiar quickly. Dahl is one of the best filmmakers working that hasn't had his big.... super success yet. His RED ROCK WEST and THE LAST SEDUCTION or minor noir masterpieces in the modern era.... both films never really had a chance due to... terrible marketing campaigns and Linda Fiorentino was ROBBED by a technicality in the rules regarding eligibility for THE LAST SEDUCTION.... a HIGH CRIME if you ask me.... I don't know too much about SQUELCH... and personally I feel that's for the best.... Dahl's films should be a surprise... Just be sure to catch it.
Hey Harry,
The Wicker Man here, with a delayed review of "Squelch". I saw this last week but due to various reasons have only been able to get to a review of it now. I really have wanted to see this for awhile, because the filmmaker John Dahl is an exceptional craftsman. I'm a firm believer that with the exception of "Unforgettable", Dahl is the only living director to have a firm grasp on what it takes to make consistent complex, thrilling, chilling, noir films. "The Last Seduction" and "Red Rock West" are some of the best modern noirs since "Body Heat" and I figured this would at least be a decent flick. Let me say this is a film that not only exceeded my expectations but stands up to the man's best work.
Basically, if I had to compare it to another film, I'd say this is in the vein of "Breakdown", but equally good or better. In short. It rocks!!
Now for those who thought Paul Walker was just some pretty boy, in this movie he does an excellent job as a college-bound young man who decides to take a road trip to see LeeLee Sobieksi at her school rather than fly directly to his school instead. On the way, he picks up his ex-con brother played by the always-hilarious Steve Zahn. On the road with only big rigs, Steve Zahn has a CB radio put into Walker's car and decides to have some "fun" with the truckers. Needless to say the movie takes a very dark turn from that point on. Performancewise, Paul Walker and Steve Zahn share the most screen time together, with a likeable and instant chemistry. Leelee Sobieski is wonderful in a smaller role she has which picks up in the latter half. The cast gels well together and really play the suspense for all it's worth.
In general, the suspense is taut and the characters very believeable, thrust into a very gripping and panicky situation. This is the way suspense films should flow, unlike "What Lies Beneath", a film I felt severelyfailed in that area.
If there is one problem I had with the movie, it was that the "villian" of this movie is all too plain-seeming and the final actions gimmicky. I don't know what I was expecting, but they kind of showed too much of the "villain" for me. Now most movies have problems in the endings, so I'm not knocking how hard it is to wrap things up. There's a very tight sequence involving a gun that for the love of god should go the other way than where it does. It makes moral sense, even though it would make the ending very bleak. In this sense I felt a totally bleak ending would resonate so much more with the idea of our own choices and consequences.
I hope 20 Century Fox knows that this is not "The Skulls" but an excellent thriller from a true filmmaker. Please let this kind of good stuff get made more often.
Another hot time in the old town tonight with...
The Wicker Man
