‘Murder, Anyone?’ Is Bloody Fun for Everyone (Movie Review)
Murder, Anyone?
Rating: 10/10
Director: James Cullen Bressack
Writer: Gordon Bressack
Style: Dark Comedy
Time: 80 minutes
Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmRKFTwzX9c
Rating: R
Review by Mike Szymanski
As it starts off, “Murder, Anyone?” seems like a traditional film noir film from the 1950s with potboiler stories, fancy twists and simple sets. This film is not only all that, but it’s quite enjoyable and extremely clever, too.
The film script puts all of Hollywood on its ear as it explores the creative, difficult and obsessive process of writing a movie, or play, or whatever.
Mixed with that is the fact that the real story behind the film is a young director’s obsession to bring his father’s unfinished script to life by pouring all his money and effort into it, and doing it the way his father would have wanted.
James Cullen Bressack at age 30 has made almost as many movies as he is old. He has completed 21 of them — mostly in the horror or action genre — and it includes working with Bruce Willis a few times, Shannen Doherty, Mel Gibson and many others stars and soon-to-be stars. When his Emmy Award-winning father Gordon died suddenly at 68 a few years ago, the young director felt like he lost his focus. He went to a dark place.
“When my father passed away, not only did I lose my dad, my mentor, and my best friend, but in many ways, I lost my purpose,” Bressack says. “A large part of me died. And for a long time, I really couldn’t figure out where that part of me was anymore. The creative part.”
He found it again — all that bottled-up creativity — when he dusted off one of his father’s old scripts and he produced it and paid for it himself. It is the movie version of a play that his father debuted in 2017 two years before his death.
The story starts off with two writers trying to collaborate on a play. Play or movie? One of them keeps trying to think of it as a movie. And, that back-and-forth: play/movie, hero/villain, reality/fantasy is the theme throughout this rather brilliant script and the tight directing.
The writers are George (Maurice LaMarche) and Charlie (Charles M. Howell IV) who are stellar in their roles as each other’s counterpart while they think through the storyline and plot points. As a type of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they narrate and comment on the story they are working on, and also get caught up in the sometimes deadly process of expressing their creativity. It’s obvious when collaborating that you always want to stay on the same page, literally, and often times that is simply impossible.
They divert from the story in very obtuse ways. They talk about how you are never more than six feet away from a spider, and “Danger could be right at your door,” and inevitably for everyone in the film, that’s true.
When the story begins to come to life on the page, the film turns into color and then reverts back to black-and-white as the storyline bounces back to the writers.
The story starts off in a rather classic way, with a knock on a door by a handsome stranger. Enter dapper and handsome Cooper played by Kristos Andrews, who says he is living next door with his great aunt. (He isn’t as dashingly handsome at first, because the writers don’t write him that way. And that guy is still played by handsome Tyler Christopher from “Days of Our Lives.”)
He’s wearing a cricket outfit and has a British accent, until the writers wonder why they need all that set-up. It’s the sausage-making part of the creative process, and sometimes it gets bloody ugly.
Lots of surprises are in store, including the casting of child actor Spencer Breslin, who looks much like he did in “The Cat in the Hat” and “The Kid” only bigger and in a chicken suit. He offers some much-needed levity in this wacky farce where anything can happen and anyone can pop in.
A cameo by Marilyn Monroe (delightfully played by Theresa Ireland) has her saying “Jack, if you don’t call back, I’ll take some pills…” Anything is fair game in this film. Any monster, any conspiracy, any legend.
And then there’s legendary prolific actress Sally Kirkland, who adds this credit to her 200-plus list of movies at 80 years old. The Academy Award nominee (for “Anna”) tells me that she was drawn to Bressack’s directing because of his enthusiasm and energy. Her character is murdered a bit before the movie starts, but she comes back as a vengeful ghost and an even creepier zombie. It’s tongue-in-cheek dark humor that presents itself throughout the script.
When the zombies don’t act like they supposedly should, the actors find out that what they’ve learned in movies about zombies is not always correct. So, throw in a vampire, and find out that it’s the same problem. You can’t always believe what you see in the movies.
The heroine is played by Galadriel Stineman who looks like a young Nicole Kidman, but more like Ginger Grant from “Gilligan’s Island” (which is a dated reference I know, so that’s why I said Nic). Galadriel plays her role both harsh and mean-spirited as well as ethereal and innocent depending on the writers’ whims. She and Kristos Andrews play well together which is why the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks references in the script ring true.
Add to the mix a French blind psychic medium cleverly played by Carla Collins in a comical psychic portrayal that gives Whoopi Goldberg’s “Ghost” psychic a run for the money. Collins is the only member of the cast who was in the original play of “Murder, Anyone?” when it first debuted at the White Fire Theatre in Los Angeles.
The dialogue banter is witty and very inside-Hollywood to some extent. They talk about young wanna-be studio execs taking renown screenwriting teacher Robert McKee’s class and now thinking they can be a successful writer. Oh, how true. The writers in the movie divert into arguments about how movie theaters make more money on their expensive snacks and that’s why there should be an Intermission, and how having that break in a play may ruin it for some viewers.
If you don’t get this movie on first viewing, you have to watch it again, and listen to it, just listen. It would make a great radio comedy/drama. It’s like peeling an onion, there are so many layers to it, and it is very smart.
Screenwriter Gordon Bressack won Emmys for animated hits such as “Animaniacs” and “Pinky and the Brain” and worked on “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” He also was a playwright of some note. Actor LaMarche who plays one of the writers, was the voice in “Pinky and the Brain” as the Brain who is a mouse and an evil genius. His co-hort Howell was a writer on the shows, so a lot of the cast is all in Gordon Bressack’s family.
Stay for all the credits because director James comes in mid-way through to talk directly to the audience. and read the credits too, because they are funny and tell you to pay attention to what is going on on the screen. That’s where the director explains a bit about the project and the movie and breaks the fourth wall. But it’s funny and crazy just like the rest of the film.
The movie is now heading for the festival circuit, and James is going to see the film for the first time with an audience at one of these. He doesn’t like to do that, and most of the time leaves because he doesn’t want to hear and see how the audience reacts. This time he will stay. My guess is that he won’t be disappointed.
Seven scripts are left behind by his dad, and it would be great to see what else the Bressack father-son collaborations may bring.
As the film says, “Some things last forever, nothing is ever really gone for good.”
Young director Bressack, like his dad, shows a wide range of talents, from high-drama action films to outrageous horror to family projects.
When I hear that something is a passion project that a person has always wanted to do, I usually steer clear because it’s usually overdone and overplayed. That’s not the case with James.
In fact, this movie is a good example of how James Cullen Bressack should not be bridled and be allowed to explore things on his own — with his dad’s spirit at his shoulder.
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