I can’t believe how much I underestimated E.L. Katz’s Cheap Thrills. Haven’t seen the movie in at least a decade. I know I watched it, but my only lasting memory is a vague sense of okay-ness, that I liked the film even if it didn’t rise to the level of the You’re Nexts, The Guests, and non-Winguard/Barrett genre movies of the late ‘00s to early ‘10s. This was pre-Letterboxd, so I can’t even look back at what my impression of the movie was at the time. Watching Arrow’s Blu-ray release of the film, I can’t believe I didn’t have a stronger memory of Cheap Thrills.
Cheap Thrills is great.
Movies as prescient as this one are often overlooked in the moment, only for people to come around in time. That’s what I tell myself for being fashionably late to the party in this instance. Regardless, I’m there now.
I think the film’s premise, really the only aspect of the film I remembered after all this time, is so simple and genius that it’s easy to stop there. Pat Healy stars as Craig, a freshly laid off mechanic with a wife and child at home. Without a job, but with an eviction notice in hand, Craig stops off for a drink. He runs into an old friend, Vince (Ethan Embry), who’s also not thriving, and soon the two cross paths with Violet (Sara Paxton) and Colin (David Koechner) and everything goes to hell.
For Vince and Craig, that is. For Colin and Violet, this is just another night out. Armed with deep pockets and a deeper sadistic streak, Colin offers the old friends $50 to whoever takes a shot first. That quickly escalates to smacking a stripper’s butt and Craig getting knocked out by a bouncer. That begins a night of oneupsmanship as Craig and Vince debase themselves for the small cash handouts from Colin and Violet. For a bit, it’s amusing as they sabotage each other, sucker punching someone during a breath holding contest, making loud noises while someone is inside a stranger’s home. As the title implies, the fun of it wears off pretty quickly as Vince and Craig’s desperation pushes them to truly dark places. And that’s when Cheap Thrills elevates to a higher level and reveals itself as a movie with its finger squarely on the pulse of the income and wealth inequality that has only grown wider since the film’s release.
Maybe the wildest thing about Colin and Violet, two characters utterly indifferent to the plights of Vince, Craig, and anyone else facing similar financial struggles beyond the entertainment value they can glean, is that they aren’t villainous enough. Credit to writers Trent Haaga and David Chirchirillo for crafting the exact right characters to pay off their premise. A lesser version of Cheap Thrills would rely on their concept to do all the work. That probably would’ve still been entertaining but with the lasting power of cotton candy. Here they’ve made it the entry point to a satire sharp enough to draw blood.
As Vince and Craig ruin their lives countless times over in the name of staving off unemployment or eviction for even just a few months, Katz brings the audience to a place where all that’s really left is despair. Despair for what becomes of Craig and Vince. Despair for the increasing number of Colins and Violets in the world, people whose sole purpose is to inflict misery on others. Most of all, despair at the realization that the majority of people watching Cheap Thrills are closer to being Craig or Vince than we care to admit.
Arrow’s limited edition blu-ray release of Cheap Thrills looks and sounds great, but having not seen the film’s original release I can’t speak to the comparative quality. All of the legacy special features are carried over and Arrow has two new supplements. First is “With Friends LIke These,” a solid-if-not-revelatory interview with director E.L. Katz and producer Travis Stevens. At 20 minutes it’s informative while feeling like we’re just scratching the surface. The other new feature is a commentary track by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, a film critic and author. Her analysis and appreciation of the film is highly enjoyable. She brings a fan’s enthusiasm that I found infectious. It pairs well with her critical insights. I have to say, from the handful of Arrow releases I’ve reviewed over the years, the commentary tracks they commission are consistently good listens.
Arrow’s release of Cheap Thrills is out now
