Sleazy Pete (2017) Review by RevTerry

I would be a shitty liar if I said I did not enjoy the wave of so called "grindhouse" tributes that has rolled around for the last ten years or so. Its been a great, steady flow of completely watchable and usually fun "throwbacks" from a range of budgets. Even though that's a pretty good deal for a motherfucker like me, it was only inevitable that the style would become contrived and like so many things before it, the subject of uneven parody and pandering.  Its just how it goes. Luckily, just as I was starting to wear thin in my enjoyment of artificial grain covered references, I was given an advanced viewing of a flick that went another route with its grimy VHS style. Instead of using effects to match the aesthetic or  appearance , Sleazy Pete opts to include the ridiculous energy and toothless soul of our fucked up favorite classics. Plus no fucking fake grainy shit the whole time.

The 11 minute "proof of concept" piece follows a corrupt man of the cloth as he makes his way through a slightly dystopic city, peddling his "gods flakes" and generally being a bastard.

What we get is a holy-roller Bad Lieutenant with Jason Takes Manhattan's lighting.  The trash oozes from its pores, it pulls from the defiantly lost moral grounds of a late 80s-early 90s straight to VHS era. Sleazy Pete (Jay Ferst) is the kind of asshole only that string of gritty action films made time for and it works great.  Not much in the way of story or resolution but I assume that this is just one chapter of the title characters exploits. The short is based on the faux trailer Shepherd of Death, which was produced by Glock Buster Films as well. There is no public release date but the short is currently showing at festivals.

11Mins | 2017

 Director: Frank Appache

Writer: Frank Appache 

Links:

IMBD

Official Website

Review by

RevTerry