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Michael Holloway (Balthazar Getty) works night-time shifts at a gas station in downtown LA. Just out of rehab, he tries to balance his new clean life between his wife Chloe (Rebecca Gayheart), a baby on the way and Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. Michael is still haunted by his former vices, especially since his shitty job at the gas station puts him in the middle of the world he is trying to leave. If temptation weren't enough, in comes in a new character—a writer named Stuart Chappell (Peter Weller)—who offers him big bucks to help him explore Los Angeles's underground life as research for his new book. From there what you expect to happen happens. You'll see bars, strip clubs, fight clubs, bondage clubs, prostitutes and drugs—la crème de la crème—as Michael's life will go downhill, succumbing to drugs and alcohol and endangering his marriage. Shadow Hours is clearly a movie about redemption with an undeniable religious theme brought through the ambigous writer. The message is "You have to go to the bottom to find the strenth to save yourself". Newcomer Isaac H. Eaton tried to make an original, edgy psychological film but the result is a painful cliché-driven B- (if not Z-) movie. And the fact it is distributed by Blockbuster film is definitely an indication of its quality— even more surprising is the fact that Shadow Hours was in the last Sundance Festival official selection. This flick is the perfect example that Independent cinéma delivers as much—if not more—crap as major Hollywood studios. Cheap and independent doesn't mean good, and we can fear this kind of release is only the tip of the iceberg of lousy indie flicks that fortunately for us will never make it to our screens. While the plot—nothing new here—could have been interesting, the film fails for all the right reasons. First, clichés abound. Who hasn't already seen LA's dull wildlife with its sex and drugs? Any movie trying to go for voyeuristic thrills features a scene in a strip club or bondage gear. What makes the movie even more a picture postcard is that the sequences in these "underground" worlds are really short and don't show much, to avoid being too shocking. We are far from William Friedkin's Cruising with Al Pacino, a movie that wasn't only pretending to show, but really was showing and investigating its subject. Therefore don't believe the—edgy—poster and the image the film is trying to portray. You won't see much more than any Steven Bauer straight-to-video rental. And the crime investigation sub-plot is totally stupid. Then, the dialogues are insipid ("You've been drinking again haven't you!!"). This is especially troubling and ruins the movie that is trying to be so psychological. Regarding the acting, Peter Weller (Robocop) makes a great demonstration of over-acting while Getty and Gayheart are content to just be, and the rest of the cast wouldn't even make it to a UPN show. What is kind of funny is the eerie resemblance between the main character and Charlie Sheen—LA's bad boy. Balthazar Getty really looks like Charlie, and his character's life takes the same roads. Michael is an ex-bad boy out of rehab for almost everything (drugs and alcohol) who is seeking redemption in his new job, the gas station for Michael, and the more glamourous tv show Spin City for Charlie. What we don't really know is if Holloway was also into prostitutes and if he could afford the talents of Heidi Fleiss's agency. But the importance given to his wife might suggest that she entered his disturbed life to make him settle down. The movie takes then another unexpected dimension and seems to be a direct message to Charlie to find redemption in the arms of a nice, loving wife. Finally we won't even mention the other movies that Shadow Hours rips-off, from 8 MM and The Devil's Advocate to the obvious Fight Club. They indeed visit some underground fight clubs and when they ask about the rules, the answer is "There are no rules." The direction tries to be edgy, like a video, mixing a quick montage and techno sounds (Moby, Fluke,...) but the result still looks cheap and fails to create rhythm. The only interesting part is seeing the wacky people around the gas station at night, especially the homeless guy. Shadow Hours is good title for the 90 mn you'll spend watching it.
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