E-Bowla (Short)
If you’ve ever wondered what goes on at any given “Ladies Night,” you may want to keep wondering. That is part of the underlying premise behind Cindy Maples’s delightful comedy, “E-Bowla.” Taking a break after the serious storytelling of “Random” and “Out of My Mind,” Maples is keeping it short, sexy and simple when four guys get together for their one time a year gathering to hit the lanes on the target-rich environment of “Ladies Night.”
Full disclosure: In January, I got a rare behind-the-scenes look at the film as Cindy was in Georgia working on editing “E-Bowla,” but that resulted in just the first minutes at the top being seen, so the bulk of this 9-minute short film was still new to me. Truth is, though, I would enjoy this film just as much without that early look- my enjoyment is just a bit increased by how well I see the film, and that part, came together in the end. Maples knows what she’s doing as a storyteller, and she’s as adept in building comedy set pieces as she is horror. A key similarity in both is timing, and she manages to hit that sweet spot right before the humor doesn’t work, and that’s a talent you can’t say all filmmakers have. The fact that she’s an actress who has done work on stage, and in front of the camera, which can require different degrees of timing helps, and that experience aides her as a director here.
One of the big revelations that Maples shared with me on that January day during a lunch Q&A we did was how she started to see the film through the prism of what had been going on at the time throughout the movie industry when powerful people like Harvey Weinstein and Louis C.K. began to get held accountable for their abuse, and objectification, of women, and that is an important idea to keep in mind by the time the film gets to the end. The four men who enter the alley that night- Big Thumper (Will Chase), Levi (Leo Kempf), Wrecking Ball (Maples’s husband, Rusty James, who came up with the characters along with Kempf) and Spare Bear (Paul Nicely)- ooze machismo and male id unleashed and see this as an opportunity to rack up some strikes without putting down the money they would at the strip club. Ok, the one exception here is Levi, who just enjoys getting together with these guys, and seems to go along for the ride- he’s the comic relief in the film, and he is an important counterpoint to his friends, as he sees things just a bit differently than they do. (Notice how they first get to the bowling alley, he quietly shows his excitement for the pizza buffet over it being “Ladies Night.”) The scene where they get their shoes from the counter attendant (Gina Moore) is also indicative of that difference, and defines the personalities of these four simply by how they say their shoe size. Editing, economy of writing, performance, and shot composition are all important pieces of the process, and they give this brief scene the desired comedic effect that could have been lacking. I also like the use of a longer shot when the four are bowling later as she cuts between balls going down the lanes and shots of women minus their heads. Not literally, but, let’s just say she knows what these four characters are looking at, and wants to show us, as well- it makes it more impactful when Big Thumper convinces the guys that bowling is done for the night. Also, keep an eye out of the green tint in a lot of the lighting here- as with red in “Random” and blue in “Out of My Mind,” there’s a purpose to the color scheme.
There’s not a lot to complain about here- technically, it feels like some of the background sound overpowers the dialogue when they first hit the lanes, but that’s a minor quibble, at best, and it’s only a brief part of the film. Compared to “Random” and “Out of My Mind,” “E-Bowla” is slight both narratively and emotionally, but that’s not surprising given the premise, and the truth is, the film doesn’t need deep emotions or ideas to work on an audience. This is a movie done for the fun of the premise, which extends to the end credits, which had me cackling with how it built on the payoff. I don’t know that I’d say “E-Bowla” rolls a perfect 300, but it definitely gets in the 280-290 range handily, and there’s no shame in that.
**”E-Bowla” will have its premiere at Echo Lanes, where it was shot, in Kentucky at 7pm on Friday, April 27, with another screening at 8:30pm, as well as hitting the festival circuit the rest of the year. It’s well worth checking out.
