Disc Reviews

Everly Review

• 4th Aug 2015

Salma Hayek is Everly – a former mobsters gal who has found herself on the death list and hunted by what seems like an endless parade of hitmen and women – all intent on cashing in on her demise before the night is out.

The film – set largely in one apartment (albeit a fucking HUGE apartment) – adds a little bit of tension to this action thriller as Everly fends off the masses with what seems like an unlimited arsenal at her disposal.

Everly is a very flawed, if short film. The right intention is there. There is the promise of colourful characters, hyper-violence and plenty of jam to throw at the walls.

But the overall net that holds it all together has serious holes causing tension to leak out. There is also the overriding issue that a lot of the players on screen (including Hayek) not giving solid performances. Sadly no one comes from the school of thought that less is more. Hayek waving her arms around relentlessly when she is having telephone conversations only serves to frustrate the viewing with what can only be described as amateur acting.

Director Joe Lynch (Wrong turn 2, Chillerama) has in the past showed an equal balance of confident filmmaking as well as need for restraint. Chillerama in fact had him moving his camera with confidence, but then his subject matter sometimes ran away with his zeal for a laugh and overstayed its welcome. He’s also a director way too keen to plug in as many references as he can to other films.

It is one thing to be a know it all about film (as Lynch has proven on his Movie Crypt podcast), but it’s another to force it visually down audiences throats in an era where we are suffering from meta and referential movie fatigue.  Simply presenting us with something original and letting it do its own walking and talking might be nice.

For those who do still love this sort of thing, his references here work strongest perhaps when presenting his version of Japanese cinema. There is a fairly strong sequence that begins here, again let down by  “clumsy” bad guy antics which seem justified only because it was forced into the script.

At the end of it all you will have the memory of a good set up, some nice moments of proper adult action (blood and all), a few worthy characters, some decent creepy music (Bear McCreary), but ultimately it being a bit of a mess.

It is a godsend though to have a proper 18 rated film get released and have such a short running time. Lynch may still have something to offer audiences in future – but we hope that that thing doesn’t come packed to the rim with memories of other movies with it.

For extras there is some behind the scnes material;l and not one, but two commentary tracks.

Steven Hurst