One in the Gun – Review

Rolfe Kanefsky burst onto the movie scene with There’s Nothing Out There, a film that had the charisma of the creature feature The Boogens. A guilty pleasure for sure, he wrote and directed a spoof that made fun of the horror genre years before Wes Craven made a huge comeback with Scream. He has dabbled in a vast array of genres and has always embraced the B-movie conventions he grew up with. Talk about a mulitfarious resume; he has the sex comedy combo of Pretty Cool and Pretty Cool Too; the horrors of Nightmare Man and The Hazing; and now the mind-twisting neo-noir of his latest picture, One in the Gun.

I confess to not being the biggest film noir buff on the planet. And to be honest, I can’t recall the last time I saw one until I attented a screening for Rolfe’s new film a few weeks back.

Steven Man plays Lewis, a struggling artist turned panhandler who crosses paths with the luscious bombshell Katrina (Beverly Randolph), who proceeds to take him home so he can make some honest money painting her house. Katrina’s marriage is beyond repair and her husband Arthur Webb (Steven Bauer) believes his wife is a cheater and wants his money, five million buckaroos to be exact.

It is revealed that Lewis is a private investigator hired by Arthur to keep an eye on his woman. Things become more bizarre as Lewis suffers from claustrophobic, nightmarish dreams that bend reality and turn the story into turf that David Lynch feels right at home at. Thinking he has accidentally killed Katrina, he heads to the desert to bury her body, only to meet up with a group of screwball townsfolk that play ping pong with his damaged psyche even more. The line between reality and fantasy only get foggier as Lewis fails down the rabbit’s hole deeper as he starts to question who he is and how he got there.

From start to finish this is a sexually-fueled thriller that owes a debt of gratitude to films like Lost Highway and Wild At Heart, yet somehow retains its old-fashioned sensibilities. The narrative gets skewered at the half way point, and you are either going to love it or hate it for doing that. I need to give it a second viewing to take in all the intrictate plot twists that happen along the way.

A shout out must be given to director of photography Gigi Malavasi, who does a superb job in balancing the lighting between the more noir-esque scenes and the bright neons of the more modern setpieces.

It was great seeing Robert Davi (Maniac Cop 2) back on the big screen again. I’d love to visit the set of Rolfe’s next movie because he always has the most beautiful women (Kristina Coolish) taking off their clothes for him.

One in the Gun will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for the more adventerous movie buffs that enjoy genre-benders, there is much enjoyment to be had.

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