Style triumphs over substance in Usher Morgan’s weird combination of neo-noir thriller and spaghetti Western. Morgan, who wrote, produced, directed, and edited the movie, here demonstrates that he has mastered every flamboyant trick of the trade: indulging in peculiar camera angles, occasionally inserting animated sequences, and even keeping one figure in black-and-white to contrast with the lurid surrounding color scheme. Morgan also shifts back and forth chronologically to tell a fairly simple tale about a woman who, after witnessing her husband’s murder, leaves her southern hometown to run a bar in Michigan, only to be confronted by a local gang threatening her business—and her family. Enraged at the thought of having her world upended a second time, she decides to respond to violence with violence. Nothing in Pickings—which is the name of the bar—is subtle. The lead performances—from Elyse Price as matriarch Jo Lee-Haywood, Katie Vincent as her daughter Scarlet, and Joel Bernard as “Uncle Boone,” a Clint Eastwood-style gunslinger—are wildly over-the-top, as are those of the large supporting cast, often to embarrassing effect. The narrative is punctuated by snippets of down-home songs from the bar’s guitarist, while a background score composed by Vincent in the style of Ennio Morricone is ladled gleefully over the action. Pickings is far from a good movie, but the strange mash-up of genres, pointlessly extravagant technique, and numerous nods to Leone, Tarantino, and the Coen brothers make it a fascinating oddity. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)
Pickings
Dark Passage, 102 min., R, DVD: $16.99, Blu-ray: $25.99, Aug. 2 Volume 33, Issue 5
Pickings
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