Director: David Campion
Distributor: TBD
Genre: Crime/Drama
Running Time: 72 min
Budget: $15,000 USD (£10,000 UK)
Expected/Actual Rating: R for language and violence
Website: Click Here
Trailer: Click Here
Online Rent: TBD
Online Purchase: TBD
Reviewer: Jeremy T. Hanke
Final Score: 7.0
The Marr family–a group of Irish gypsies, known as “Travellers”–camp outside the rural town of Woodfalls. Unwelcome by the townsfolk, a feud erupts between the eldest boy traveller, Billy (Matthew Ferdenzi), and Damon (Gareth Bennett-Ryan), the son of a local criminal leader. When Billy’s sister, Rebecca (Michelle Crane), goes missing, things begin to spin out of control for all involved.
Story
The acting in Woodfalls is competent throughout, although the story pacing is a bit sluggish in the middle. Told in a three part narrative—one each for the three main protagonists of Damon, Billy, and Rebecca—the setup of this film reminded me most of the Doug Liman film, Go—albeit with a more Reservoir Dogs-style conclusion. The ending fit the film and worked well for the build up.
Billy is drawn to the world of the house-living Gorgers, even if they only seem to use him for his notoriety.
Watchability
Woodfalls is quite watchable, in general, although it’s watchability would be tremendously improved by boosting the volume of most of the dialogue throughout the film, as some of the things people say are hard to make out—which is especially important when dealing with Travellers whose speech can be hard to understand, anyway. (However, these particular Travellers are much easier to understand than the related ‘pikers’ in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch.)
But when Rebecca tries to enter the world Billy flirts with, things go seriously wrong.
How Far Did We Watch Through It:
100%
Why?
While the film drags in the middle, making it a little harder to finish, it picks up as they push into the key twist of the film, so they earned the full watch through.
Closing Thoughts
Woodfalls has a few weaknesses, but it’s a pretty strong Indie crime film that explores the world of the modern gypsies in a way that’s both intriguing and thought-provoking. Give it a shot and leave your own thoughts in the comments!
Final Score:
7.0 – worth renting on Amazon.com or another streaming venue!
Jeremy T. Hanke
The director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films, Jeremy Hanke founded MicroFilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make better films. The second edition of his well-received book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) is being released by MWP in fall 2016. He's curently working on the sci-fi collaborative community, World of Depleted, and directed the debut action short in this series, Depleted: Day 419 .