Loaded with cash from a big win in Vegas, Joshua (Jon Jacobs) crashes his motorcycle in the desert on the way to Hollywood. He thumbs a ride into town and ends up in a seedy bar. There he meets Ana (Ayesha Hauer), who offers him a place to stay for the night. The next morning, however, Joshua awakes to find that Ana has chained him to her bed, stolen his money, and used it to buy heroin. Joshua is then forced to watch her shoot up.
After a couple of days, Ana finally lets him go. But Joshua can’t stop thinking about her deadly addiction and comes back to her. This time, however, the tables are turned as Joshua now chains Ana to her own bed, forcing her to give up heroin the hard way.
Content
This is a very good movie, but it also may be difficult for some people to watch. The themes of sex and drug use may seem disturbing to many viewers, but then again, the current trend within movies is to disturb the audience. Films like Requiem For A Dream, American History X, Fight Club, Party Monster, Donnie Darko, or even Memento have made a name for themselves by messing with the audience’s mind. This type of dark film is, I think, far scarier than a normal horror movie, and Welcome Says the Angel certainly fits into that genre.
The acting in this movie was amazing; I felt very drawn into Joshua and Ana as more than just characters, but as real people. There were some really tender moments between the two of them, as well as times in which I really felt like crying.
However, there were a couple minor problems that I noticed. First of all, when Joshua first sees Ana shoot up, he initially seems very upset about it, but later seems willing to take advantage of her drugged up state in order to have sex with her. Not long after, she lets him go, only to return later to help her. There isn’t much indication of what causes his change of heart, so it would be nice to see some sort of hints as to why he cares so much for her after only a few days. In addition, there are some stretches of time – usually when Joshua and Ana are together in her apartment – that tend to drag a bit. It might be helpful to tighten up some of these segments, perhaps by adding some montages. However, there are some really great moments, such as when Ana is experiencing withdrawal and asks Joshua to tell her a story. Joshua then relays a story that I assumed was about himself; revealing the fact that, in the process of helping Ana, he also helped himself.
Visual Look
The visual look of this film was really interesting; the coloring was slightly off, the contrast was a little high, and the video had a slight grain to it. This almost gave it the look of an old 70s film, rather than a modern-day picture. I’m not sure if this was done on purpose, but the look was very unique. There were also some great handheld shots, especially at the end of the movie where Joshua is dragging Ana around the apartment, trying to wake her up.
I loved the lighting and ambience as well; there was very little light inside Ana’s apartment, and as a result there were some great shadows throughout. There were also some great elements to the décor of the apartment – such as the fact that Ana’s bed is inside the frame of an old car, and much of the room is decorated with Christmas lights.
The only issue I had was that there are several disorienting jump cuts throughout the film, often involving the passage of time at Ana’s apartment. As it took me a few seconds after each jump cut to get re-oriented to what was happening, I would’ve liked a few more dissolves to make these transitions smoother. However, given the disturbed and unsettled feel of these characters, the sudden jump cuts tend to fit well with the overall theme of the movie.
