It has been a good couple of years for filmmaker Jason Lapeyre. He brought two of his films to Fantastic Fest 2012 (among several other festivals that year) and has landed US distribution deals with both of them. The higher profile of the two was I Declare War, which won several festival awards and secured North American distribution through Drafthouse Films. But Lapeyre’s Cold Blooded also recently secured distribution through Uncork’d Entertainment and is now available for purchase on iTunes, and will be getting a DVD/Blu-ray release sometime later this year.
There are several reasons that I Declare War is the higher profile film of the two, but Cold Blooded is worth a watch and together the films offer a good sampling of the breadth of Lapeyre’s potential as a writer/director. Cold Blooded is Lapeyre’s take on the pot-boiling crime film in the vein of isolated assault films such as Assault On Precinct 13.
As such, Cold Blooded plays with a few tropes that I love. It takes place almost entirely in one location over the course of one night, and it does so with a very limited cast. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but I’m a sucker for these kinds of taut stories. So there is a simplicity to the setting of the film that belies the complexity of the story itself.
The set up is remarkably intricate for such a small film. Diamond thief Eddie Cordero (Ryan Robbins) ends up in a coma in an isolated and semi-abandoned wing of a hospital after his heist goes south and his partner is killed. As an audience, we can’t be entirely sure how the partner ended up dead. Was it Robbins? Was it the arresting officers? What we do know is that a vengeful colleague named Holland (William Macdonald) is coming to avenge his dead friend and find the diamonds that Cordero seems to have hidden away. Mixed up in the middle of all this chaos is our hero, Officer Frances Jane (Zoie Palmer). Jane is tasked with the simple job of guarding the comatose Cordero overnight, and ends up in the middle of the night from hell when Cordero wakes up and Holland comes calling.
Lapeyre has opportunities to shine amidst the budget and schedule limitations of this film, but the limitations don’t go unnoticed. Cold Blooded feels like a calling card for his potential as a crime writer/director more so than an entirely successful film in its own right. And where the performances and production value shine in I Declare War, they falter some in Cold Blooded. Lighting and set design sometimes feel rushed. Leads Zoie Palmer and Ryan Robbins are solid but many of the supporting actors don’t feel as authentic as I would have liked.
And although the reason why this wing of the hospital is so isolated and seemingly inescapable are explained in a quick line of exposition, I never could quite understand why our hero couldn’t just walk out of the semi-abandoned wing of the hospital and get help. I’m sure this is casually explained, but any explanation would feel like somewhat of a stretch. You just need to suspend your disbelief since after all, without darkened, isolated, and totally unrealistic hospitals, we wouldn’t have half of the great slasher and crime films that we do. Films from The Godfather on down to Halloween II have integral scenes in isolated hospital wings that only live in the movies.
Cold Blooded’s strengths lie in it’s icy-veined meanness and heightened conflicts. The film goes to some very dark places and shocked me more than once with what it was willing to do to our lead characters. Bad things will happen to human bodies here in Cold Blooded. And a high level of tension runs through the whole film as well.
I also liked the arcs of our two main leads, who represent two of crime cinema’s favorite archetypes: the beat cop and the diamond thief. Officer Jane is the subject of Cordero’s unending curiosity and we learn much about her from Cordero’s endless questioning. Cordero is the film’s wild card. He’s never trust-worthy but always likeable: a dangerous combination. Cordero seems to engage in conversation with Jane because he’s an affable rogue. But it is clear that he is trying to find the best angles to maneuver his escape. Jane plays everything by the book but her career and life aren’t where she wants them to be and Cordero uses this against her repeatedly. The two characters clash constantly, with Cordero trying to use reason and logic to convince Jane that they’re in an unwinnable situation against Holland and his men, who’ve seemingly thought of everything. Jane’s adherence to procedure is either her only salvation or her biggest crutch when the situation goes totally beyond the limits of her training.
If you can look past the low production value of this little indie crime thriller, you’ll be able to find a lot of pulpy goodness. Some crazy plot developments and several smartly set up standoffs inject muscle into a dynamic siege story.
And I’m Out.
Originally published at old.cinapse.co on October 7, 2013.