Ten 'til Noon

I caught this at SF Indiefest and didn't know what to expect beyond a tired retreat of "Momento" or "Pulp Fiction". But I was extremely surprised and impressed - "Ten 'til Noon" is a true original, a terrifically involving, funny thriller that is able to consistently surprise the audience.

Well-acted, well-shot, and much slicker than the other low-budget fair at the festival, this movie is actually able to reinvent itself every ten minutes with significant shifts in tone, yet it never feels jarring or that somehow we've wandered into a different film. The result is a brilliant, wide-ranging view of a very small event (a 10 minute crime), and how it both effects and is effected by the players involved.

One should be warned that the movie has it's fair share of potentially offensive stuff - sex, violence, language, and homosexuality, all presented in somewhat extreme fashion, which is a surprise given the overly mature, sober tone and pace of much of the film.

If you have a chance to catch this film, do so. We, as an audience, aren't lucky enough to have a lot of movies like this out there.

I recently had the privilege to view the motion picture Ten 'Til Noon. This movie is an edgy flick that's not for the whole family. It has many twists and turns that keep you guessing. Just when you think you knew what's going on, you find that you didn't know. This movie has it all; suspense, laughter, violence, betrayal, sex and a surprising love story. The story is told in the same ten minutes of the different characters that are linked in what appears to be a home invasion robbery. My mood was apathetic when the movie first started, but as each tale evolved my interest peaked. I couldn't wait to see what was next, even though it was sometimes shocking. The movie reminded me of a Quentin Tarantino directed movie and it had some of the suspense of "The Usual Suspects". After the movie was over, I found myself wanting to see it again. I feel that it would have this effect on most people or it would completely turn you off. The only question I had was "…what happened to Reuben?"

this film has the correct components to make a smart, sexy, funny, thriller that keeps the viewer glued while a complex plot is unfolded in a series of events that occur during the same ten min. period on the same day. the writing for the film is edgy and well done with great visual and audible sarcasm and dark humor. the acting is all well done and the actors help portray a cool style and sleek visual that aids the film in being the noir piece that it is, i highly recommend this film to anyone that is a fan of pulp fiction, Jackie brown, reservoir dogs, and any David Mamet film. the fact that this film was a low budget effort should not deter you from seeing this creative film. the cost of the film does not even begin to affect the quality of this picture or the caliber of the portrayed talent. the movie itself comes off as a polished, sleek film that doesn't fail to impress and enjoy.

"Ten 'til Noon" is one of those films that are more interesting for their form rather than their content. The concept (how different but interconnecting characters spend 10 minutes of their life, from 11:50 to 12:00 p.m) is intriguing, the twists (that come when the concept is finally broken) are genuinely unexpected, the acting is fine (Rayne Guest, in perhaps the film's trickiest role, is both explosively sexy and a good actress), the direction is perfectly OK for the budget, but ultimately the film is little more than an exercise in gimmickry (even having a 5-minute epilogue sequence AFTER some of the end credits have rolled), with a few Tarantino influences also evident (mostly in the dialogue). Overall, I'd say it's worth seeing for its sheer audacity. (**)

"Scott Storm has the most natural talent of any filmmaker I know." - Bryan Singer

Scott Storm continues to be an under-appreciated creative variable in the States. Despite carrying a major award with his first feature at the Slamdance Film Festival some years ago, it has taken this long to realize his follow-up, a guerrilla indie production with the brand of TEN TIL NOON.

While the title evokes images of a classic western, the picture is actually a dark examination of a single ten minute segment of one very bad day for a random group of seemingly amoral inhabitants of the City of Angels. While the film has yet to secure distribution beyond the festival circuit, it is crafty, violent and delightfully offensive in certain scenes. You could say that they don't make them like this anymore. Despite grander ambitions from the outset, Storm, Paul Osborne and their collaborators have accomplished uniquely commercial production values despite the complete absence of an "A-List" cast or reasonable project capitalization. In fact, the filmmakers en masse are to be commended for realizing a no-budget independent film ON FILM (as opposed to digital video) with intelligent sound design and yet another fine original score by the similarly underrated Joe Kraemer.

Given the current industry prejudice against this type of independent film, your first opportunity to see TEN TIL NOON may be through AMAZON, STARZ late-night programming or NETFLIX. Despite the naysayers, this film is very much part and parcel of the Tarantino oeuvre, and if you like 'em lean, mean and bloody, TEN TIL NOON is worth your time and attention.