UNION FURNACE 2015 / Metropol Pictures / 89m / $19.99 BR / NR
If one is embarking on a low budget picture it's wise to be cognizant of the financial limitations. Unlike many a production whose goals exceed their capital "Union Furnace" was conceived from the get-go to be produced for very little cash. Set in a dying Appalachian town the main locales are a tacky motel and what appears to be a decrepit social hall (an antlered head on the wall might be an elk – the sparse lighting makes it difficult to be certain). Small time crook Cody (Mike Dwyer, who co-wrote the script with director Nicholas Bushman) gets hooked up with a mysterious stranger (Seth Hammond) who offers him the chance to earn tens of thousands of dollars. All he has to do is compete against other desperate contestants in front of a masked audience that will be wagering on each game. The premise isn't anything we haven't seen before but the presentation has rarely been so grim and gritty thanks to the cash-strapped budget and a cast of mostly unfamiliar faces. (Keith David is the closest thing to a name here and his presence suggests that his career has not exactly been going full bore since "Platoon.")
In addition to the low-rent settings (the most elaborate and colorful "set" is a strip club that assuredly is not something constructed for the film), the disguised audience wears cheap dimestore Halloween masks (which are surprisingly unsettling) and, except for the final sequence, the photography makes no effort to sweeten the lighting from the harsh and nasty fluorescent illumination available. I can think of no film since "Night of the Living Dead" that has made such a virtue of its threadbare financing to deliver a visceral impact. Now this isn't a great film and it may not even be a particularly good one. The chief deficit is that, despite many of them being given a soliloquy, none of the characters are fleshed out enough for the viewer to much give a damn who wins and who loses as the games grow increasingly more dangerous and ultimately lethal. The most intriguing character is the ambiguously menacing stranger who, in a gold lion masks acts as the emcee for the games. First time film actor Hammond (who also produced) is strangely reminiscent of Matthew McConaughy in "Big Mike," particularly when he breaks out some slinky dance moves. Ultimately he may be the very best thing about a film that trots out a familiar trope and imbues it with a few new twists. longsshorttakes.wordpress.com/
