Fell

Directed by : Marcus Koch.

Well in the early '90s, Jeff Dylan Graham,Became like the TEEN IDOL OF MICRO-CINEMA and then did film after film giving a performance that he obviously never took lightly.

Now, We get FELL and it took patience to see where Jeff's character and Director Koch wanted us to invest.

Now,He was very painful to watch Jeff go thru all the drugs and not seek more help then the creepy shrink and ignore his best male friend and ex-girlfriend who seems to just wanna help whatever was left of what they knew before.

Ending was really good and had it's a 'AHA' moments with a pay-off for the patient fan !

Films produced with micro-budgets and little to no time at all can produce pretty unpredictable results, usually on the very good or the very, VERY bad side. I am happy to report that director Marcus Koch's psychodrama FELL, well, "falls" into the former category rather than the latter, thanks to a strong cast led with a gut-wrenching performance by his lead actor, Jeff Dylan Graham.

Premiered here in the States at the second annual Blood Bath Film Festival in Dallas, Graham (who also snagged the Festival's Best Actor prize, and deservedly so) portrays a deeply troubled young man named Bill, who at the beginning of the film is grappling with the aftermath of a relationship gone very, VERY wrong. We have all been there, of course, but hopefully not to the level of agony and encroaching madness that 'Our Hero' is unfortunate enough to be experiencing. And to make matters worse, other than the steadfast presence of his best bud, Derrik (Kristian Day), Bill has to weather the storm of his depression, anger and stress dealing with his "problem" pretty much alone. And that's not even the half of it.

The influence of filmmakers like Darren Aronofsky and Roman Polanski is pretty apparent here (with nods especially to REPULSION and to some extent, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM). But Koch's sure hand at the helm and the strong support from both Day and Katie Walters as Bill's girlfriend help to make FELL a remarkable little indie effort in its own right.

But what makes it work is really Graham's performance as its centerpiece. Bill could have very easily just been one more sobby, whiny, sad-sack, emo slacker/loser who would eventually get on your last nerve. But Graham mines the role for every ounce of vulnerability and pathos he can wring from it, and thank GAWD for that...otherwise it would've been an hour-plus of sheer cinematic torture that no audience in their right mind would suffer sitting through.

Here's hoping that Koch and Graham will become the indie answer to 'Scorsese/DiCaprio' and team up for many more projects to come.

"Relationships can break you down" is the stress inducing tag for this horror/suspense movie from Chemical Burn Entertainment. It hits shelves on June 10th 2012. The story follows Bill who has lost his job, running low on meds, lost his girlfriend and wakes up to find a dead girl in his bathtub. Now that is one sh*t filled day. The only good thing going for Bill is his best friend Derrek's undying devotion. "Fell" is directed by Marcus Koch and stars Jeff Dylan Graham, Kattie Walters, Kristian Day, and Barron Christian.

This movie has its moments where the melodrama surrounding Bill's psychotic break really takes control of the scene. The sorrowful slow pace as he takes meds that are obviously for depression and emotional issues as he calls his ex-girlfriend constantly almost makes you sympathize with this character. Then there are the moments in the movie that the shear slowness seems frustrating, almost loosing context. This is truly a look into a fast downward spiral of a deeply disturbed man.

The coolest aspect of this film is how Bill doesn't check to see who the dead girl is in his tub. Ignoring the situation only to have fragmented memories come back to him through static filled conversations on the stereo combined with the flashbacks. This gives "Fell" the only real pulse of suspense building up to the twisted reveal at the end.

The story is haunting with the memories of happier times overlapping darker days where depression rules. The way it escalates from a subdued melodrama into a slow burning angst as Bill remembers more and the anger of the break up comes back to him is intense. The downside is the actual long wait for the heart of the story to really take off.

"Fell" is not a movie I normally would watch, mostly due to the long melodrama moving into a slow crawl. There is not enough gore or action for me. I think the story is great for what it is and this movie is well directed. It is one that I am glad I watched but probably will not watch again. Mostly I am glad I watched because Jeff Dylan Graham portrayed Bill with honest and believable psychosis. I did learn some kind of moral with this flick. "If the medication ain't working then tell the doctor and get that sh*t changed!"