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Drawing a boundary between something that holds thematic depth and something that audiences will enjoy is a tough task. In his film WRONG REASONS, writer and director Josh Roush divides his film into two seemingly parallel, but distinct storylines to portray the difference between the two, which serves the structure. The concept itself is smart and functional on a rational basis, but, sad to say, one plot is more captivating than the other. This disparity skews the film, which is unfortunate because it is a fun indie punk rock flick that has the pleasing feel of a late ‘90s dramedy, in the vein of BUFFALO 66 and CLAY PIGEONS.
Kat Oden (Liv Roush) has been on a downward spiral due to her recent relationships with a smarmy musician and heroin abuse. The bone of contention is that she used to be a celebrated punk rocker. One day while the couple is conked out from taking a hit, Kat gets kidnapped by a man (James Parks) in a mask for reasons that are not clear at all. Kat is reacting to the masked man while at the same time, Detective Dobson (Ralph Garman) is trying to figure out the reason behind her disappearance. Now, this is a high-profile case that is receiving a lot of international media attention. For the time being Dobson is committed to figuring out the mystery surrounding the young girl’s disappearance, however, he seems to be highly motivated because of a Cable TV news anchor (Teresa Ruiz) and her network.
Writer and director Josh Roush explores the question of how much intent matters in today’s chaotic world. If you have a goal you want to achieve but you go about it in a morally unjust way, does the end justify the means? It is clearly a gray area and it is something that NEVER WRONG REASONS is unable to answer which is how the captor and the detective serve as each other’s mirror. James, the kidnapper, knows he is committing a horrifying crime but he has a noble reason behind it while the detective is seeking justice but for all the wrong reasons. (Eh? Eh?) It is a smart premise that has a clever twist, but the story with Kat and James is much for interesting than the unethical Benjamin of a start detective so it does leave you wanting more with the original pair.
The imbalance we’ve just mentioned does not undermine a reasonable portion of the film’s value. The presence of Kat and James is quite compelling thanks to the tremendously talented Roush and Parks. They successfully perform the juxtaposition of sweetness and fragility coupled with inner demons, thus creating sympathetic and compelling characters. They possess some blunt dialogue, but it’s refreshing and genuine due to the actors’ skillful delivery.
But there is more than just the magnetic duo, with other members of the cast also getting chances to shine. Garman might not have the most interesting storyline, but he wonderfully portrays Dobson, the smarmy never-was actor turned police officer who seems to be sitting through his days disinterestedly going through the motions of his job. Ruiz also excels in the role of NIN anchor Julie Martin, avoiding the clichés of the heartless bitch/cold opportunistic bitch and instead portraying someone who is simply doing their job without any mask. In the meantime, Kevin Smith appears in the role of her cameraman, playing with the two’s strong comedic energy, which results in him being the goofy stoner, while Ruiz takes on the role of the more serious professional. While the relationship between the two reminds me of the one between Courtney Cox and W. Earl Brown in SCREAM, this pairing is far more fun.
WRONG REASONS features many fun minor parts played by skilled supporting artists. Daniel Roebuck is the police captain and proves that whether it is in this punk rock indie or in anything by Robert Zombie, he kills every job. David Koechner makes good use of his slime, as James’ piece of garbage brother, but even he has a scene where he can display some depth rather than what that character would normally have. WRONG REASONS features a lot of these additional scenes that foster more humanity and profundity to these otherwise stock characters than most would assume. And those moments, however minute they may be, are grabbed by the actors and used to their utmost.
The original music is a great helping of punk rock as well as a guitar-heavy score and that is a refreshing change from the usual plink, plonk of the acoustic guitar or piano scores that most indie films come with these days. Cameron Mosavian manages to expertly transition the punk rock sound in the relationship between Kat and James and infuse it with softness, without coming off as cheesy or overly sentimental.
The cinematograph is well done if uninteresting people argue that it is absurd to claim that action is framed on the screen properly, which shows how most of them have never watched enough independent/DIY movies whereby heads are completely chopped off or the action is not centered in the middle of the shot. WRONG REASONS does not boast of any visual excitement, but its dull sense of camerawork is easily ignored because the story and characters are much more engaging.
The cinematography does showcase one thing: the car drone shot. This happens to be one of the most annoying sights in independent cinema, and I usually see it done in the horror genre. I would rather watch someone with a drone pretend to film a car driving down the road, or, in other words, film drones driving cars from their roadway. This is not harmful for WRONG REASONS, and to be fair, most of the audience will not take notice, but I am begging for people to stop doing this. Just mount the camera on a car dummy or use a different vehicle. It is so much more fascinating than a drone! That’s the thing, sure, it’s more or less an opinion, but it’s tremendously irritating to me.
Considering how bisected the storylines were, it was almost guaranteed that WRONG REASONS was going to be a little uneven. Relative to each other, both parts of this plot equally focus on the acting talents of Roush and Parks, but, unfortunately, this means that the viewers miss out on more of the superb material in between. Fortunately, the rest of the movie manages to maintain equal parts heart humor and humanity with spectacular character beats that help mend this disparity.
WRONG REASONS is very much like the punk rock music it so admires full of emotion, though a little messy.
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