Review Summary
In this darkly comic crime drama, three young strangers meet each other on Venice Beach and end up trying to rob an empty house. Seb is a small-time crook running from a New York gangster; Linus is a Boston stockbroker who has come to California to escape the boredom of his oppressive job, and Spoon is confused. He was from Chicago, but recently woke up to find himself hanging from a tree near the beach; he has no idea what happened or why. The story then delves briefly into their past lives before returning to the present. It is Seb who suggests they rob the empty beach house. Soon it's discovered that Linus is really a renegade G-man and that Seb's lover has teamed up with Frank, gangster, and is flying out to LA to get him. More mayhem ensues as the story twists and turns towards its bizarre conclusion.
~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Movie Details
Title: Venice Bound
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Country: United States
Genre: Thriller
Review by VARIETY MAGAZINE.
By LEONARD KLADY
An Artists' Coalition production. Produced by James O'Brien, Eric Kopatz, Dave Greenberg. Executive producer, Gary Kohn. Directed, written by James O'Brien.
Ambitious beyond its budgetary bounds, the extremely modestly produced "Venice Bound" indicates a talent-in-the-raw in filmmaker James O'Brien. The noirish tale is simply too narratively chaotic and technically hamstrung to connect commercially, but it could find niche appeal in specialized arenas with a taste for the darkly comic.
Superficially, pic's about three twentysomethings who meet by chance on Venice Beach. Seb (Gary Kohn) is a petty thief on the lam from a Gotham mobster, while Linus (Eric Kopatz) is a Boston stockbroker fed up with the grind and hypocrisy of his job. The third, Spoon (Jackson Price, a particular standout), is a refugee from Chicago who simply can't remember how he got there. He simply woke up hanging from a tree in the park. About half the film deals with the backstory, and that proves quite cumbersome. It's only when Seb suggests the three of them rob the house of a couple on vacation that the plot starts to hum. It turns out that Linus is an out-of-control federal agent and that Seb's g.f. has taken up with Frank (Carl William Grant), the mobster, who hops a plane to pop the absconding grifter.
The tale twists and turns to quite a satisfying, if bizarre, conclusion. But patience is paramount to enjoy the full effect. O'Brien has a penchant for too many odd angles, and this no-budget effort suffers from an often garbled soundtrack. But this is a good calling card for the helmer and his sense of the offbeat, and the cast of raw, energetic actors keeps one glued to the screen.
Camera (Foto-Kem color), Eric Swanson; editor, Dave Greenberg; music, O'Brien, Kopatz; sound (Ultra-Stereo), Steve Weiss. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (market), May 25, 1995. (Also in Edinburgh Film Festival.) Running time: 98 MIN.
Wonderful, lo-fi Gen-X storytelling.
Author: matinniemi from Hamburg, Germany
Seeing this film was a pleasant surprise at the Hamburg Film Festival back in '95-96. "Venice Bound" is just the type of U.S. indie film one used to expect at smaller European film festivals in the not too distant past before Hollywood co-opted the occasion in order to stage B-grade world-premieres of flashy feature films soon to be available on pay-per-view. Everything about this movie worked for me because it was so soaked in genre. The mid-nineties, post-Nirvana, pre-"Friends" lost generation, back when a well-meaning kid from the hood could still get mixed up with the mob if he got into money troubles. Back when it was o.k. to be a drifter, find yourself, or just be weird. More than specifics about the film, I remember being interested, engrossed, vindicated while watching it. Go see this flick if you ever find a VHS-copy somewhere (I haven't seen one, though). Go on, you'll like it.
cool indie by James14971
I saw Venice Bound at the Edinburgh film fest in '95 and then came across it years later at Videots in Venice. It's one of those true indies-- part of that whole 16mm renaissance-revolution that lasted about 15 minutes in the early 90's. The movie is kind of a cultish no-budget Pulp Fiction, with a twisty anything-can-happen vibe. Holds up well to repeat green-day viewings. Never seen it anywhere other than Videots. Too bad cause this is a gem.