Film Review UK Trouble Is My Business

Indie Films Movie Trailers Original post here Trouble Is My Business indie film October 25, 2017 | UK Film Review ★★★★ Directed by Tom Konkle Starring Tom Konkle, Vernon Wells, Brittney Powell, Steve Tom, Benton Jennings, Mark Teich, Jordana Capra, David Beeler Indie Film Review by Chris Olson Classic crime noir adventure in this indie film from director Tom Konkle, Trouble Is My Business taps into a reservoir of genre conventions to deliver a good ol' mystery and kidnapping story using amazing cinematography, costumes and filmmaking aesthetics to embolden the myriad of vibrant characters. Disgraced private investigator Roland Drake (Tom Konkle) may have taken on more than he can handle when the daughter of a prominent family comes to him for help in finding her father, who has been missing for a week. To make matters worse, she then goes missing! With a punctured reputation being splattered all over the tabloids and a rocky relationship (to say the least) with the authorities, Drake must navigate his way through copious amounts of mystery and violence to find answers. In the vain of films like Laura and Double Indemnity, Trouble Is My Business ticks a lot of cinematic boxes when it comes to delivering a period crime drama. The darkened urban streets and grimly lit office are all there alongside the tumblers of whisky and snappy dialogue. Even the font used on the opening credits smacks of '40s noir. Tonally there is a huge amount for audiences to be immersed in with this movie and great effort has been put into the sublime mise en scéne. Certain sequences may feel a little over the top but it's a genre movie that can certainly indulge in a bit of melodrama without jolting the audience out of the experience. Konkle is a particularly strong lead, containing all the wit, charm and ruggedness you could want for a private dick, and engaging in some fantastically theatrical banter with almost all of the characters. He gets ruffed up along the way by an absolutely sterling performance from Vernon Wells as Detective Tate, whose long arm of the law stretches far and wide. Along with Konkle in most scenes is the excellent Brittney Powell who commands so many of the frames she is in as Jennifer. With a running time of nearly two hours, Trouble Is My Business stretches itself too thin in terms of plot, especially during the final third. It's a storyline that keeps to the path well trodden and didn't need as much convolution as it has. That being said when cinema is as visually arresting as this you don't mind sticking around a little longer. The use of an eclectic array of Hollywood backdrops (I assume using green screen) is just magnificent, one rooftop scene where Tate beats seven bells out of Drake is sublimely put together, as are the numerous car scenes and shoot outs. The phrase "they don't make them like this anymore" could not be more apt for Konkle's film, co-written with Powell. It's a genre movie that completely dedicates itself to the form and reaps the benefits for its boldness. Fans of the masters of cinema will be in their absolute element, ricocheting against the costumes, sets, characters and more as the story unwinds into a classic caper with all the trimmings. Now...where did I leave MY whiskey tumbler. Tags: Indie Film Reviews Indie Films Movie Trailers Chris Olson Film Noir Classic Film Crime Mystery Tom Konkle Vernon Wells Brittney Powell Steve Tom Benton Jennings Mark Teich Jordana Capra David Beeler

Film Review Trouble Is My Business Vernon Wells Tom Konkle Brittney Powell a love letter to all things noir and they certainly succeeded.

Trouble is My Business (2017) review October 19, 2017 By Carl Burgess Set in the 1940’s, Private Investigator Roland Drake finds himself on a dangerous missing persons case after being hired by a beautiful dame. We review the independent feature film Trouble is My Business. Trouble is My Business (2017) review

When you think about the term “independent feature film”, images of arty love stories, football hooligans and cliched horror will likely pop into your mind. You may think about poor acting alongside amateurish cinematography and worse sound design (which in some cases is fair, but definitely not all). What you probably won’t think about is a stylish film noir set in a backdrop of 1940’s Los Angeles, with great dialogue performed by some very capable actors; yet this is exactly what Trouble is My Business is. Directed by Tom Konkle based on a screenplay by Konkle and fellow actor/scribe Brittney Powell, Trouble is My Business is a clever and well-crafted movie with nods to the Golden era of Hollywood – think Chinatown meets the video game L.A. Noir with a bit of comic book style thrown in for good measure and you’ll be on the right track. After a prior missing persons case ended in disaster, private investigator Roland Drake (played by director Konkle) finds himself down on his luck. Work has dried up, he has recently received some unwanted attention from the press and his office is about to be foreclosed. Then he finds a beautiful Femme Fatale at his desk. Katherine Montemar requires Drake to help her find her missing father. Although he is reluctant at first, Konkle accepts the job and they soon find themselves in bed together. Things then take a turn for the worse, when Drake wakes up in blood-soaked sheets with Katherine missing. Confused, Drake is soon paid a visit by Katherine’s older sister Jennifer (Brittney Powell) who now wants Drake to find both Katherine and their father. Soon, Drake finds himself in a web of lies, treachery and deceit alongside some shady characters including his former partner Lew MacDonald (David Beeler), the hard-nosed and rather dodgy police detective Barry Tate (Vernon Wells) and the wicked Montemar matriarch Evelyn (Jordana Capra). It was great to see Vernon Wells in this production. Many readers out there will fondly remember his performances as the chain mail-wearing villain Bennett in the action classic Commando and when he wore the red Mohawk as Wez in Mad Max 2: Road Warrior. Other die-hard film fans will recognise Brittney Powell from (a personal guilty pleasure of mine) Airborne alongside Jack Black and Set Green in early roles. As a matter of fact, all the cast give good performances, with some over-the-top line delivery that help generate laughs and intrigue to great effect, especially Konkle who seemed to have a whale of a time in front of, and behind, the camera.Trouble is My Business poster 203x300 Trouble is My Business (2017) review The production design is rather excellent. Konkle and his team transport us to the 40’s with the help of some small and neat details mixed with great set dressing and lighting. Talking about the sets, the team used a mixture of real locations alongside green screen. Whilst some scenes are obviously crafted using cgi, some are done so well that only fellow filmmakers will be able to tell. The score, by composers Thomas Chase and Hayden Clement works very well with the imagery, even if it seems to be playing constantly in the background. It’s obvious to tell that a hell of a lot of hard work and effort was put into creating Trouble is My Business, it is a labour of love for all those involved and it should certainly be applauded. With a small budget, many filmmakers would have easily opted to create something on a smaller scale, yet this production team went all out. They set out to make a love letter to all things noir and they certainly succeeded. Trouble is My Business is a lot of fun and worth checking out. 4.5 / 5 stars

Movie Critic Kevin Ranson Reviews Trouble Is My Business directed by Tom Konkle

Review: ‘Trouble Is My Business’ (the final word in film noir) Posted on October 16, 2017 by Kevin Ranson “Passion. Murder. Betrayal. Just another day on the job.” Full disclosure: the reviewer rolled the dice and gambled a contribution to help fund this independent production. Private investigator Roland Drake (Tom Konkle) faces eviction from his office and his career after being disgraced during a missing persons case ending in tragedy. Ruined in the public eye and shunned by the law, everything seems over until redemption walks in: a curvy dark-haired beauty named Katherine Montemar… desperate to hire anyone who can locate her disappeared family members. Both vulnerable and in need of companionship, their undeniable attraction is cut short when Drake wakes next to a pool of blood and his new client vanished from his bed. After misdirecting his equally skilled but unscrupulous ex-partner Lew MacDonald (David Beeler) from discovering the potential crime scene on a suspicious chance visit, Drake is soon confronted by Katherine’s blonde sister Jennifer (Brittney Powell), armed with a fistful of photos and a .38 special. In 1940s Los Angeles where corrupt cops rule the city underworld and moral lines are anything but black and white, trouble is Roland Drake’s business… and business is good. Hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, and a mandatory MacGuffin are all part of the tradition we call film noir. “Guns, dames, and hats” are the order of the day in these brooding period pieces, a bygone era of Hollywood like westerns and musicals. There have been the occasional callbacks with films like L.A. Confidential, Sin City, and even the original Blade Runner repurposing it as a vision of the future — a detail mostly missing from the recent sequel. All of these undertakings require extensive budgets, finding or recreating the trappings and props of the time period, and to develop the visuals required to invoke the all-important atmosphere that defines the film style. Rarely are the words “independent” and “noir” uttered in reference to a feature-length film intended to celebrate and champion a new entry into this staple of the movie industry, but with the right combination of players, passion, and just long enough of a shoestring to fish spare change out of the sewer, can a compelling dark thriller become the end result? As evidenced by Trouble Is My Business, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Less a passion project than a labor of love, writer-director-actor Thomas Konkle gathered the necessary ingredients and managed to draw forth a film by sheer force of will. With years involved in the writing, planning, independent and personal financing, and using every movie-making trick imaginable, Trouble is to film noir what Once Upon a Time in the West was to the western: the final word. With classic elements, a fresh cast, and painstaking detail, Konkle has created a world both familiar and new. Twists, betrayal, and mystery are finely intertwined with the wit, violence, and eventuality of the genre. Locations are important to a production like this, but what couldn’t be found and rented had to be created — often digitally. While Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow buckled under the weight of “look what we can do,” Konkle puts his players in the foreground and allowed the story to dictate the effects, not the other way around. With talents like Jordana Capra as matriarch Evelyn Montemar and Vernon Wells as Detective Barry Tate, the production is nearly seemless and perhaps too-real in its detail, from meticulous editing to a sweeping soundtrack. It’s clear what the filmmakers wanted this to become, and the time put into the post production shows what can be done with today’s off-the-shelf filmmaking tools and the ingenuity of modern creators. Over the last five years, this reviewer has seen several independent productions shaped from concept to completion. From an old-time rocket ship carrying space rangers into the great beyond to a backwoods werewolf reneging on his deal with the devil, there’s no shortage of imagination out there while Hollywood continues to reboot television and movie franchises they never understood to begin with. Trouble sets itself apart in both ambition and execution, and the risk yielded a great reward: a film deserving to be seen and appreciated. Four skull recommendation out of four

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