Swamp Lion

Heard about this film at the Pioneertown film festival where it won Best Feature. Glad I remebered it and saw it just now on Amazon. It's a slow-ish (I like those) but impactful indie. Really enjoyed it! I hope it gets a good distribution. Would love to see it in theaters. Rumors said it was shot for almost nothing, truly impressive. The last 30mins or so will keep you glued to your seat! Beautifully shot and great locations. I loved Luis Bordonado as the brother... Michael Escamilla is wonderful in the lead. Bre Blair is great also. I hope this review can help it find an audience. Don't miss it if you like these kinda flicks!

If you like socialrealistic movies with loads of sadness and health, doing the crimes to pay the medical bills due to cancer illness without coverage then watch swamp lion, an incredible act by michael ray escamilla, that unfortunately passed away just after the filming of this movie. Let this film stay as a testament of brilliant acting, and may he rest in peace.

Its a very scandinavian produced texas drama, with vibes of european filmmaking, the plotflow is great, 1h.48 mins, rushed by in a splitsecond, and my first thought where, now ive got a new favourite actor in my filecabinet, but its always like that, the best passes away at the peak of the moment...

the film is also a gripping lovestory between hardworking people, and also a dent in the bumper of the vehicle called american health service, but most of all well acted, shortspoken and at moments ominous.story of highly realistic piece of silverscreen storytelling, lovely musical score is the dot over the I, a big recommend from the grumpy old man.

Newb Danish filmmaker Torben Bech wrote, produced and directed this film, and although a decent story, he had too many rookie mistakes. His directing certainly had lots of room for improvement, with too many long dragged out scenes, and some irrelevant shots. The shaky-cam filming was annoying, but got better as the film progressed (or I got used to it). The editing was terrible - if there even was any. Scenes just ended in black and/or had lousy transitions.

Conceptually, the story held my attention, and tension and suspense elevate towards the ending, but the rest of the film needed major trimming. There were many noticeable plot and technical issues, most that could've easily been avoided. The 111 min runtime felt much longer with the very slow pacing. Many scenes could've been cut out as they were just filler. This film needed some major trimming down to a max of a 90 min runtime.

The score was surprisingly decent, if not lacking in quantity, but still better than the typical B film constant, loud, overbearing and unfitting score. Casting was good, with Bre Blair and Luis Bordonada being the most convincing, and Michael Ray Escamilla the least convincing; he was too monotonic and lacked facial expressions, but I'm sure most of the blame falls onto Bech for failing to direct his cast properly.

It's a decent one-time watch for a non-Hollywood-ish production in this genre. It's a generous 7/10 from me, mostly for the final act that escalated with some great suspense and a tense ending.

Swamp Lion is a hidden gem of a movie, well acted and the last 30 minutes is a roller coaster.

A particularly stellar performance by actor Dominic Hoffman as Fred, "Is your coffee thin?" recalls the bone-chilling scenes from Breaking Bad.

This Indie treasure wins out over more publicized films-- Solid writing and acting throughout. The characters are well-developed and the film pulls you into the very personal story of a family at wit's end, who are doing what they need to do to save their son.

A parable about the nation's poor health system, super-imposed upon a drug lord chase thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat--Great combination between family drama and why people turn to crime for assistance when all other avenues are tapped.

This movie is about a decent hardworking truck driver who is trying to provide the best for his family. When his son becomes seriously ill he becomes under enormous pressure to find a large amount money quickly. He must choose between the current situation or following a path that may save his son but may also destroy his future. The movie touches on the issue of people with money being able to obtain better medical care than ordinary working Americans.

I found the characters all to be down to earth people showing their failures and flaws as well as their love for each other. The movie continually develops the suspense in many different ways to an unknowing ending involving the father, brother, wife and child.

While this movie doesn't have a lot of action, it does develop the suspense extremely well.