Come Hell or Highwater

Todd Freeman and his brother Jason have been making high-quality films in Portland, OR (also home to Gus Van Zandt and Todd Haynes) for years. They've been on the fore-front of the new "Portland Film" movement with a strong reputation for creating brooding meditations into the human condition punctuated with extreme action sequences.

I wasn't lucky enough to attend the premier screening of Pray For Hell here in Portland, but I'm excited to see the film now that its found a wider release. Todd's films are a perfect example of the "Portland Film" sensibility that's beginning to gain attention throughout the world.

Do yourselves a favor and check Pray For Hell out - you'll be able to say you were watching Portland Films from the beginning, before the movement reached world-wide popularity.

This has got to be one of the worst movies I have ever forced myself to sit through. I kept hoping it would eventually tie itself together either through narrative, or cinematic style. It's comes across as cinematic masturbation and pseudo avant-guard story telling.It has none of the positive features of either.It is a revenge film but what the genesis of this motivation is, is anybody's guess. Some people get killed for some reason (there's an obscure reference to tapes and a quarter million dollars). These people are related to "Tonka", whose father gets killed because of this vague conspiracy. Throw in a purposelessly sadistic cop; who is (perhaps a bible freak, and some (possible) faceless lover and "Pray for Hell" becomes a mishmash of violent imagery and pointless cinematic "effects". The overbearing soundtrack and attempt misguided attempt at nonlinear storytelling coupled with the awful cinematography and editing make this film an entire waste of time.

soundtrack is overbearing and the constant cinematic "effects" are headache inducing. Absolutalely no redeeming value.

This movie has many aspects. One is the old film style. If this was not done on Film then Digital has come a long way. The filming style set the expectations. I knew it would be a scary film. I don't recognize the actors but the characters are familiar and look real. No SUPER White Teeth in this film. The locations, lighting and camera angles are a throwback to the days of Great filmmakers. The acting is a little stiff but that may be what the director wanted. I just could not tell.

One other thing, the mind's eye is as much a part of the movie as the actual events that are occurring. I really liked how the main character's thoughts are portrayed as a separate movie in this movie. I suppose that is the Portland Style the other reviewer is talking about.

This is a revenge film. With a small budget, the music was within expectations and a little too loud. The direction had a lot of old and new mixed together and I had a hard time making sense of it. Like the way the main character talked was at odds with an old rotary dial phone. He seemed more confused than me. It was just odd and distracting. I expect a film to progress with some attention to detail.

It might have helped if the fight scene at the beginning was prefaced by some sense of where we are. I really never did know where I was during the entire film - in the 1940's or in the future! OK... that said, on to the plot. Some men were protecting another man. I suppose they were Police. One of them had a son who is a policeman. The killer finds them and kills them in unspeakable ways. The Son investigates and begins taking inappropriate revenge along the way.

A lot of odd characters come in and out of the story as well. But none of the characters is very well developed. If you can pay attention long enough, some of them eventually develop but I would have done it much sooner. I think that would have made the film more interesting along the way.