Crave

Well another day of Fantastic Fest has gone by and I really wanted to see Room 237 which is a documentary about the Shining and talking about hidden messages in the film but I was too late to get into that one.

Well anyway I’ll catch that flick when it is released on some of the other venues so I decided to check out the other flick that I wanted to see at the same time and that flick is Crave.

What I find interesting is that Crave is the first feature of director Charles de Lauzirika who has worked for years producing DVDs and Blu-Ray releases of such films like the Alien special edition among others.

Needless to say I am pretty familiar with this man’s work so naturally I wanted to see this flick.

Crave follows a 35 year old recovering alcoholic Aiden (Josh Lung) that works as a crime scene photographer that has frequent fantasies such as shooting men on a train that are harassing a cute girl and also beating to death people that can’t stop talking at his AA meeting and then he meets his neighbor Virginia (Played by Emma Lung) who he is attracted to and then one day they hook up.

Now the problem is that Aiden can’t handle the relationship and in time manages to mess it up sending her back to her ex (Edward Furlong) which really sends Aiden to a point where he has to make the choice of what he needs to do.

The film has many subplots such as Aiden’s friendship with a police officer Pete (Ron Pearlman) who is also his AA sponsor  learning various crime investigation techniques. Other subplots include him finding a gun after a robbery and homicide at a crime scene and then his blackmail of a pedophile.

 

All of these subplots come to a head in a surreal climax that makes you wonder is this real or is this in his head.

One thing I like about some of the movies that I watch is when there is a character that I can identify with and as a result I can feel like I am in the movie.

As a professional videographer I have been in some of the situations like the character in Crave is in. (not all of them just a few) which makes the movie harder in some of the scenes where I want to yell at the screen for the character to walk away but I know that he won’t walk away because he is not me and this is a movie and it has to go into the next scene.

 

This movie also utilizes location and set design to continue the storytelling. Such as the fact that the film takes place in Detroit which anyone that watches the news will see that Detroit is a ghost town and looks like a place of bone crushing poverty where is the characters are living.

I’m sure that this flick will receive a main stream release and we will be seeing this flick and more from this director in the near future.

4 Dead Bodies

4 Breasts

1 Beast

1 Zombie

3 ½ Stars

Check it out