Frat boys run amok in Daniel Robbins and Zack Weiner's riveting and scary thriller, PLEDGE

I can't prove that the connection between Capitalism and very bad fraternity behavior was foremost in the mind of the writer and/or the director of the new horror/thriller PLEDGE, but by the end of this gruelling but somehow satisfying, if ugly, movie, that connection has been made in spades. The writer, Zack Weiner, is also one of the stars of the film, and while Pledge gives his character some decent dialog and amusingly awful situations to endure, Mr. Weiner (pictured below, left) has actually given the center of attention and interest to a character we rarely see as central or heroic: the fat boy in the trio of friends who make up the movie's "group hero."

That rotund and generally affable fellow is played exceedingly well by Zachery Byrd (above, center), who relatively quickly comes to seem like the voice of reason of the three pals, all of whom want fairly desperately to be able to join a fraternity on their college campus. How they're enticed to cast their lot with the very unusual group, whose simple insignia grows more horrifying as the movie progresses, takes up maybe the first third of this short, dark and dirty little genre movie that succeeds mightily where a number of other naughty-frat-boy films have not. Pledge knows what's it's up to, dives in and proceeds to its finale with devastating focus and force.

The director, Daniel Robbins (at right) has paced things very well: offering up a slow, sure and crisp beginning followed by a middle and end in which we're barely allowed to draw a breath. Best of all, thanks to Weiner's screenplay and Robbins' handling of it, there are quite a few genuine surprises along the way, most of these coming, thankfully, toward the end.

These are not merely "plot" surprises, either; instead they often involve character. Though our roly-poly is the best defined of the group, almost all of the subsidiary characters, victims or villains, are given enough interesting characteristics for us to easily differentiate, as well as care for or detest them appropriately.

The "hosts" of the very oddball fraternity to which our boys want to attach are played with lip-smacking delight by several good actors, including Cameron Cowperthwaite (above) and Aaron Dalla Villa (below).

The young women seen here are used for mostly decorative purposes and as an enticement to and reason for our less-than-intrepid heroes to come aboard. No, the subject at hand is the American male, Alpha variety, and all the wonders he can get up (and down) to.

Mr. Robbins knows just how far to dish out the blood, gore and vomit (more is smartly imagined/suggested than actually seen, but what is suggested/seen is plenty). This combination of smart, if very unappealing, subject matter -- brought to life via good writing, direction and performance -- turns what might have been just another fairly standard horror/thriller into a nastily memorable genre piece.

From IFC Midnight, Pledge opens theatrically in New York City (at the IFC Center) this Friday, January 11, and in Los Angeles (at the Arena Cinelounge) the following Friday, January 18. If you reside elsewhere than either coast, fear not: the movie hits VOD this Friday, January 11, as well.

Sexual harassment squared in Sharad Kant Patel's genre jumper, SOMEBODY'S DARLING

A very interesting, often impressive blend of frat house misbehavior, feminist leanings, male prerogative, sexual harassment and the supernatural, SOMEBODY'S DARLING, the first full-length narrative film from Sharad Kant Patel, proves a surprisingly artful concoction -- a movie that hits several of today's hot-button issues head on, even as it successfully morphs into something quite creepy and otherworldly.

Mr. Patel, shown below, is mashing at least two major genres here, and doing this in such a way that be gives both their due, while withholding from us as long as possible the specifics that will eventually enfold one genre, the obsessive love story, into the other -- which is something else indeed.

Before TrustMovies does any over-praising, he must admit that the movie, though only 80 minutes, is still a bit too repetitive for its own good. Yet within those 80 minutes, Patel does such an interesting job of leading and misleading us, dropping hints and clues with skill and panache, that despite the film's refusal to give up its secrets much prior to the finale, he keeps us hanging on. In addition to the screenwriting and direction, our filmmaker is also responsible for the editing, visual effects, some of the music and sound design, and even the color grading and the inventive title sequence. Pretty much top to bottom, this is Patel's baby.

His story of a particular frat house at Williamsburg University (sounds real enough but isn't) and what these bad boys get up to with the girls on campus is typically nasty and unpleasant. But one of the guys, Christian, the frat house President, seems both better and worse than the others. When he becomes smitten with a young lady named Sarah, who prefers to keep her distance from the likes of these frat boys, all the usual bets are off.

As played by Paul Galvan (above, left) and Jessa Settle (above, right) these two characters easily hold the screen, thanks to their talent, looks and charisma, and to Mr. Patel's having given them plenty to do and say that keeps us glued. This is a love story of sorts, and exactly how and why these two feel the way they do is unveiled to us slowly and artfully.

How the filmmaker handles everything from simple (or not so) storytelling to sex, love and past lives is done with enough style and subtlety to impress without appearing pretentious. This is a feat of sorts. And he has also cast his smaller roles well, with an eye to making his young women pretty and slightly vapid and his young men -- for instance, Matt Tramel, below -- pretty and slightly bizarre. It works.

His finale is a shocker that makes exquisite sense. It also makes us think back to what we've seen earlier and how we've misread certain events that now look so different, appalling instead of frat-boy appealing, with the stakes so much higher than we had first imagined.

And yet, ah, what might have been! Somebody's Darling is indeed a love story, but as with almost all obsessive ones, it proves very, very dark.

After a successful festival run, the movie hit VOD -- via iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere -- on December 1, for rental and purchase. It's worth a watch.

From here to fraternity: Will Canon's BROTHERHOOD opens in L.A. and Dallas

Doing for frat houses pretty much what Holocaust movies do for Nazi Germany, BROTHERHOOD, the new knock-your-socks-off movie -- his first full-length -- from Will Canon, starts with a scene that will have you holding your breath but doesn't let you take that breath until its swiftly-paced & sweaty-palmed 79 minutes are over.  "You know what they forgot about?" my companion offered, only minutes before the movie ended. Hello -- "they" didn't forget about a thing, as it turns out, including that "loose end." Mr. Canon, pictured below, is surprisingly deft in how he brings his movie home in a manner as appropriate and believable as it is fair and just.
And riveting.  

The movie begins with a hazing/initiation "prank" that is both beyond stupid and utterly believable, given our current times and the state (Texas, I'm assum-ing, as the movie was filmed there) in which we find ourselves. When things go wrong, escalating like mad, even as the participants are disintegrating badly, the film-maker captures all this with uncan-ny skill and precision, considering how crazy things become.  There is an immediacy to Canon's work and the performances of his up-to-snuff cast that keep the movie barreling ahead like there's no tomorrow -- which for some of these guys, there may not be.

The very speed the director maintains, together with the quite real sense of dislocation and fear that grabs both the pledges and the senior frat boys, pull us so thoroughly into the situation that these easily cover up any logic lapses that may occur (though, while the movie was going on, none were apparent  to me).

The reality built by the screenplay and dialog gives a wonderful sense of improvisation gone right, for a change. And the actors, to a man (plus a couple of excellent performances from women: Katherine Vander Linden, as the butt of a particularly nasty prank, and Jennifer Sipes -- above -- as an angry sorority girl) come through in sterling fashion.

This is a "guy" movie, however, and Canon and cast have done a fine job of differentiating characters surprisingly well, given the little time there is to manage this. Registering most strongly in the ensemble are Trevor Morgan as the pledge torn between fraternity admittance and doing the right thing, Lou Taylor Pucci (above) as the mistaken victim, Arlen Escarpeta (below) as an even more unjust victim, and Jon Foster (two photos below) as the SIC (sleaze-in-charge).

According to the press materials for Brotherhood, the movie is based upon an earlier short made by the filmmaker. For a rare change, here is a full-length film derived from a short that fully deserves its feature status.

In addition to providing a fast, fun ride, the movie nails the nastiness of so many fraternities, along with the sexism, racism and unbearably smug sense of entitlement of which they reek. Hardly a recruiting poster for Wi-Fi-Pi and the rest, Mr. Canon has, besides offering up some savory entertainment, produced a kind of public service announcement.

Brotherhood opens this Friday, February 25, in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Sunset 5, while playing currently in Dallas at the Angelika Film Center, and opening in Brooklyn at the reRun Gastropub on March 11. The film is also available now via VOD. Check with your local TV reception provider for details.