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It’s not the small town diner setting that makes Last Straw – the feature directorial debut by Alan Scott Neal – stand out, though it does give it a fresh angle for its home invasion thrills. It’s the unique narrative structure that not only leans into the prevalent feeling of rage but reframes the visceral violence that ensues. While Last Straw ultimately fails to stick to the landing, the commitment to escalating the tension and violence through rage-fueled characters fascinates all the same.
Twenty-year-old Nancy (Jessica Belkin) feels trapped and fed up with her life. Stuck in a transitionary period post-high school, Nancy tries and fails to care for her dead mother’s beloved car and hangs out with her still-in-high-school best pal Tabitha (Tara Raani). Nancy also happens to be bitter about an unwanted pregnancy, which compounds her frustrations with working at her dad’s (Jeremy Sisto) diner as a waitress-turned-manager. Nancy’s bad day grows infinitely worse when she kicks out masked troublemakers, and she gets fed up with insubordinate staff that includes Bobby (Joji Otani-Hansen), Petey (Christopher M. Lopes), Jake (Taylor Kowalski), and Coop (Michael Giannone).
One firing later and a temper tantrum leaves Nancy all alone to cover the night shift, which then becomes a harrowing fight to survive the night when the masked invaders return.
Neal, working from a script by Taylor Sardoni, creates a hyper specific world of small town poverty and the residents trapped in it. Nancy isn’t your average final girl; she’s short-fused, mouthy, and tired of everything. Belkin taps into Nancy’s rage so well that the lead protagonist’s standoffish nature is almost refreshing; this character doesn’t care what others think of her, even when her youth makes her prone to rash choices. She’s hardly alone in that prickly, frequently hostile vibe. Save for her dad, Petey, and love-stricken Bobby, few around her fare any better in terms of earning audience allegiance. All of it is in service to capturing this isolated setting, and the thinly veiled threat of violence hangs in the air, waiting to explode at any moment. And it does.
An opening sequence teases just how gnarly Nancy’s night will get, and Neal stages the diner siege with proper intensity. The well staged action brings palpable suspense and frequently induces sympathy pain. It’s framed around a narrative shift that changes everything that came before, giving a fuller picture of the events leading up to Nancy’s bid for survival. Neal confidently ensures this risky move doesn’t unravel the story or hinder its momentum too much. Where it does ultimately unravel is in the conclusion. Sardoni and Neal stretch Nancy’s fight far too long, stretching plausibility to a frustrating degree through genre trappings and contrived character choices.
Last Straw earns its title; its characters are fed up and reach their final breaking point, leading to a no-holds-barred night of carnage. Through a mean, lean horror thriller, Neal captures the current landscape of thinly contained fury constantly on the cusp of violence. While authentic, the characters aren’t interested in earning empathy to a polarizing degree, and the ending squanders much of the goodwill built up to that point. Even still, the siege horror is effective, and Neal’s assured grasp on the tricky narrative framing makes for an engaging debut.
Last Straw screened at Sitges and Beyond Fest. Release info TBD.
