I have been recently watching a lot of Tim McCann movies in anticipation of his new movie with Robin Tunney and Aaron Stanford.
This second-newest release, NOWHERE MAN, is a great slice of low-budget DV independent/ B-movie film-making. And when I say B-movie, I mean it in the best sense of the term. I read a FILM THREAT interview with McCann where he talks about preferring Anthony Mann movies to anything made today, and NOWHERE MAN has that same sort of hard-hitting pulpiness that a film academic could respect... if they weren't TOO uptight. After all, this is a movie whose main character has had his willy removed.
The acting all around, from leads Rodrick and Rochon and Olivier to one-scene appearances by Michael Risley (who starred in McCann's excellent REVOLUTION #9) and Bob Gosse and Lloyd Kaufman, is really solid and plays more to the realistic side of the situation, but with a few moments of comedy -- both broad and subtly dark -- in there for good measure.
The theme of NOWHERE MAN is quite similar to McCann's first feature DESOLATION ANGELS, which also featured Rodrick as a man who learns a secret about his girlfriend that drives him to unnecessary macho violence, but this is a much leaner, more effective film. Unfortunately, I fear too many people won't be able to get over this flick's cockiness, so to speak, and see it for the well-told drama that it is.
Of course, the filmmakers aren't helping matters with the selection of crude outtakes put into the end credits, which sort of undercut the tone of the film -- but which presumably are there to pad this lean, mean film out to feature length.
