Too Late

I freely admit to having watched this film primarily because of Dichen Lachmann and Natalie Zea (who I'll see in anything), but it had a great deal more to offer than I was expecting.

Yes, Hauck steals freely from Quentin Tarantino when it comes to mixed-up timelines, and steals even more from the genre of L.A. Noir, but it has its own charms. It also has some really ballsy experiments, such as shooting each of the five acts in one single take (on 35mm film, which must have been a real bitch to pull off given the changing lighting conditions).

Good performances from a wide range of actors clearly pitching in and having a good time with a small Indie film in between better-paying gigs. Plus, there are some genuinely touching moments, the kind that make you (or at least made me) go back and re-watch a couple of early scenes at the end to see them at the end, after the context of them has been to some extent explained.

I like that the song "Down With Mary" has been short-listed for the Original Song Oscar this year. That shows that this film got more attention than might be expected for a supposed low-budget Indie flick. I look forward to Hauck's next effort.

Hats off to this film and the team. Really an interesting tale and told in an unconventional way. Always nice to see movies which break the mold and challenge the audience. Hawkes is great and the rest of the cast is really strong. You can feel the flaws in these characters as they try to sort out the connections between them.

The film has an unique style which does aid in the storytelling and keeps the audience wanting more. Great chemistry between the actors and they really do tie the whole film together with their layered characters.

Enjoyed the texture of the 35mm film. While not the perfect digital imagery which has become commonplace... it's flaws give the gritty story an authenticity which matches it perfectly.

Really enjoyed it... highly recommended.

Wow,I really enjoyed this movie!! How has this gone virtually unnoticed? The dialogue is great and funny. So much style! Long takes make for real world feal. Crazy gritty flawed characters. Plenty of shocking twists. Soundtrack is very good and adds meaning to the scenes. This is the best movie i have seen in quite a while.

Too Late is halfway decent noir story anchored by a more than decent lead, but it lets itself get swallowed by its gimmicks. The movie is presented as a series of five twenty-odd minute one-take shots, with mixed results. The opening segment has some neat tricks behind it, including getting star John Hawkes from one end of town to another while maintaining action at a fixed point, and the reveals in the last are effective. But not all of the actors are up to the task, and the reliance on the one-take structure don't do them any favours; many of the scenes in the second section, in particular, have a student-play vibe to them, despite the presence of known names like Robert Forster and Jeff Fahey (Dichen Lachman, however, acquits herself well as a twist on the no-nonsense stripper trope). The nonlinear structure also feels like an afterthought to add some unnecessary extra novelty. The sidebars the movie somehow finds time for don't always work, such as a pair of minor drug dealers with no real purpose other than to pad out the takes and the film's annoying insistence on using film itself as a source of dialogue far too often. If it lost its gimmicks and shed a bit of fat, Too Late has the bones of a good gumshoe flick, albeit one a bit too reliant on stuffing women in refrigerators.

I really like Film Noir and "Too Late" tries to be one but falls short. I appreciate indie films because they avoid the usual Hollywood mainstream stuff and I cut them a lot of slack, but this picture doesn't help you out. It is disjointed and not well written but I think director Dennis Hauck is on to something.

This effort, however, tends to lose the viewer with time frame juxtaposition which is too clever by half. I had to work at it to sort out the sequence of events and I think I nearly caught up by the end of the picture. Add to this the scenario which often lapses into the surreal and some overwritten dialogue (Dashiel Hammett is safe), and the cake falls.

John Hawkes was good as the detective but has an emaciated look. He is a stretch to be a hard-boiled 'noir' hero, which is a minor objection, but I hope Hauck perseveres and refines his ideas. There is a need to counteract the current trend toward the populist dreck that shows up in the multiplexes nowadays.