BRUISER (2020)
Starring: Dustin Whitehead, Callan White, Jeff Benninghofen
Writers: John Mark Nail, Joshua Russell, Dustin Whitehead
Director: John Mark Nail
Small time criminal Jack Rose (Whitehead) is the reliable go-to man for local shady businessman Harry (Benninghofen) and this profitable sideline helps to keep the small motel run by Jack's father afloat. When a lucrative job involving smuggled cargo presents itself, Jack accepts without realising what the cargo is and how dangerous it will turn out to be for both him and everyone else around him...
The opening sequence of Bruiser is a masterclass in how to introduce the bulk of the protagonists in the most economical and entertaining way possible as we swirl around the parking lot of the motel seeing how the lives of these people overlap. It also establishes the link between Jack and Harry and their far from easy going relationship, which will be tested to its extreme as matter spin out of control.
Co-writer Dustin Whitehead is outstanding in the lead, initially coming across as little more than a thug for hire but soon revealing a much more caring side in his dealings with his father and stepmother then the inner conflict which comes from being involved in a criminal enterprise far more disreputable than his usual work but one whose financial side could solve a lot of problems. What he doesn't realise is the profoundly serious problem that is about to be caused by crossing the wrong people.
The supporting cast is just as quirky and impressive. Jeff Benninghofen is both charming and quietly menacing as Harry, who is happy to chat with a customer about the plants he's selling one minute and then ordering Jack to beat the crap out of someone the next. Callan White is excellent as Dina, helping to run the hotel in her own pleasant but no-nonsense way.
Also, watch for the eerily brilliant Colin Wasmund as the character credited only as The Time Keepin' Man. This is someone extremely focused on his job, right down to the exact lines of dialogue he will say, in the fashion he chooses to say them, in the situations in which he will deliberately place himself. This act is crafted to fashion a veneer of forgettable mundanity over the terrifying man underneath, an ice-cold killer with a particularly horrible M.O.
Bruiser is an adroit mix of the brutal, the blackly comic and the surprisingly tender. Scenes of the motel's inhabitants sharing their days with each other - one specific sequence involving an outdoor picnic is genuinely heartwarming - rub up against beatings, shootings and stabbings with nary a misstep. A few surreal moments are thrown into the mix too and these fit the offbeat tone rather well.
The time taken to get to know the protagonists and the various little idiosyncrasies of theirs we're shown means the violence around them hits all the harder because we care about these strange folks. They may be classed as lowlifes but there's a curious decency to them even if their earnings don't always come by the most legal of means. This leads to moments where we're dreading what we might find behind that closed door or around the next corner. The build of tension is expertly constructed and almost unbearable on occasion.
Fans of thrillers should make a beeline for Bruiser. Its unconventional spin on many classic thriller tropes makes for an experience which hits all of its targets in terms of offbeat humour and grimy, down and dirty violence. It also packs an unexpectedly emotional punch, especially in terms of the bittersweet ending which sums up the unstinting lack of sentimentality in John Mark Nail's cracking crime story. For me, this is easily one of the films of the year in its genre and you should rush to see it.
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