THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"Callback:
The Unmaking Of Bloodstain"
Tormented By Your Audition For A Film Role? Take Note Thy Budding
Thespian!
By
Omar P.L. Moore/September 26, 2008
Michael DeGood as Carl in Eric M. Wolfson's
"Callback: The Unmaking Of Bloodstain", which opened today at the Laemmle 5
Theater in Los Angeles. Mr. DeGood also co-wrote and co-edited the film.
(Photo: Jaffle Productions)
If you want to know what rejection is like
after you've poured your heart out (or poured something out) in an audition for
a big screen role, and haven't a clue, Eric M. Wolfson's film "Callback: The
Unmaking of Bloodstain" is probably the film for you. "Callback", which
opened today exclusively at the Laemmle 5 theater in Los Angeles, is more than
occasionally amusing though not laugh out loud funny. Mr. Wolfson, who
along with the film's original creator Michael DeGood wrote the film's
screenplay, makes the most of tapping into the neuroses and fears of four
disparate souls -- a schizophrenic, a serial mugger, a Shakespearean actor and a
revenge-fueled director -- and succeeds intermittently.
"Callback" cleverly tells converging stories from multiple perspectives in "Rashomon"-style,
interspersing confessional interviews in close-up to evoke a realism meant to
put us in touch with these lonely souls in the City Of Angels. Mr. Wolfson
layers the film as a documentary on top of an audition on top of a
film-within-a-film (are you still with me?) Sometimes it works, many other
times it does not.
Tony (played by Jeff Parise) is a mentally unhinged man who has been recently
released from a mental institution and arrives in L.A. to attempt to take off as
an actor. Mr. Parise allows his character to really let loose after
shedding his medication to keep himself fully functioning. Then there's
Marci (Kate Orsini) who is feeling the pressure of directing "Bloodstain" -- she
has been assaulted and is looking to cast the rest of her film, which, not
surprisingly from the title, means that some violence will occur. When you
add Carl (Mr. DeGood), who mugs people on L.A.'s city streets to get by in the
wake of a poor economy while looking for the big break of his acting career
while fiance Beth (Burnadean Jones) scolds him at almost every turn, and Peter
(Johnny Moreno), so unskilled that he cannot even wait tables with the requisite
degree of intelligence and has to resort to working as a telephone operator at a
gay sex club, then you have a stew of characters in a story that is, at the very
least, irreverent.
"Callback" certainly shows its willing cast pouring everything it has into the
proceedings. The film mocks the process of casting (Jennifer Hall shines
as a perky casting director) and auditioning, satirically ripping the scabs off
the small community that keeps so many employed, and so many others trying to
break through, nipping feverishly at the heels of their competitors. While
last month's "Tropic Thunder" generated greater vigor in sticking a finger in
the eyeball of Tinseltown, you have to give Mr. Wolfson, Mr. DeGood and the cast
of merry men and women credit for trying to put it all together in what is a
mildly entertaining 90-odd minutes of farce and fun.
"Callback: The Unmaking Of Bloodstain" is not rated by the Motion Picture
Association of America. The film's duration is one hour and 36 minutes.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2008. All Rights
Reserved.