Bent (Short)
Since his last three films have all been centered on characters and emotional concepts, seeing Chris Esper move into straight-forward genre filmmaking felt like a bit of a jolt for me. But here we are, with him telling a police drama about corrupt cops and moral shades with the same confidence in his directorial talents as he has for a movie like “The Deja-Vuers” or “Imposter.” If the film doesn’t quite have the same emotional weight to it, it’s because the script by Kris Salvi, albeit a solid piece of storytelling, doesn’t quite give the actors the wallops you might hope to see out of this film.
The film begins with two cops- Brenda Hoggins (Audrey Noone) and Michael Brooks (Justin Thibault)- barging in to a drug dealers house, shooting him (and his girlfriend) on sight before the rest of the cops even come in. We immediately get the impression from their dialogue together that they have done this type of thing before, and sure enough, we see a detective talking to Internal Affairs about them. Brenda is our primary point of interest, though, and indeed, her union rep is concerned about her, and gives her an update on her son, hoping that will get her out the way she goes about things, although IA may have to do some more persuading.
“Bent” follows a very standard structure for a police movie, so it is up to the actors and director to make it stand out as something that will hold out interest. Esper and his cast are up for the challenge, as he is acutely familiar with the way a film like this should look and feel, and he gets that style on screen extremely well. His actors help get it the rest of the way it can go, and they all give solid performances (with Noone standing out in the lead) as we see chickens coming home to roost for some dirty dealings in the way Brenda and Michael have gone about their business. While I don’t have the affection for it as I have his last few films, Esper’s foray into a more traditional genre effort illustrates his strengths as a storyteller, and that, with a less-conventional screenplay, we could see something less traditional, and more unique, from him if he even dips his toes into the genre again.
