Pros & Cons (Canada, 2009) 79 min color DIR-SCR-PROD: Joseph E. De Leo. MUSIC: Jeremy Stobo. DOP: Mark Condoluci. CAST: John Goodrich, Eleonora Barna, Dan Dodgson, Lisa Moule, Jason Thompson.
This shot-on-video feature starts off as a hilarious black comedy of manners in which male escort Tom takes a woman named Zara to a hotel room for sex, believing her to be a client; instead, she turns out to be a prostitute. After the deed, the two argue over who owes who money. It seems even people in the sex trade have semantics: they are “escorts”, not “prostitutes”. The “hooker with a heart of gold” cliché gets a gender reversal, as in this film, it’s Tom who wants to get out of the sex trade and have a normal life.
Before long the film shifts gears into a thriller, while still subverting genre conventions. Tom’s efforts in domesticity are constantly thwarted by Zara’s pimp, Lou, who still wants his money. Lou, by the way, is Zara’s father, played with the perfect blend of paternalism and creepiness by Dan Dodgson. Even so, writer-director Joseph E. DeLeo falls prey to the stereotypes of indie filmmaking, with needless jumpcuts and yet another case of the Coincidence Disease.
But all Oedipal drama aside, this is an interesting character study of two people trapped in their little worlds, yet whose attitudes and behaviours towards sex are very different. The revelation of the movie however is Lise Moule as Julia, a married woman who becomes a regular customer of Tom’s: she does excellent work in progressing from mousy self-consciousness into self-confidence, but alas, despite Tom’s ambition to run away with her, it is clear she is as doomed as everyone else.
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #24.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.