Just One Drink (Short)
Staci Layne Wilson
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Starring Barbara Nedeljáková, Andrew de Burgh, Isaac Anderson, Harwood Gordon
Directed by Andrew de Burgh
When knockout widow Tamara Nolan (Barbara Nedeljáková) uses Facebook to lure two young men to her Hollywood apartment for a New Year’s Eve party, there are all in – but a series of evil events take place as her dark agenda comes to light, and it’s not at all what the guys had in mind.
Written, directed and starring Andrew de Burgh, Just One Drink is an ambitious and well-done short (made to be the jumping off point for an expanded feature, now in pre-production). De Burgh is a promising young director, whose strongest of the three credits is his writing. It’s good to see proactive people who make things happen and get movies in motion without just waiting around for Daddy Warbucks to come along and sign a big check.
De Burgh plays Steve Pintolivo, one of the two lured men, and Isaac Anderson III plays Derek. Tamara’s dead husband is resurrected in flashbacks, and he’s well-played by veteran actor Harwood Gordon. It would be spoiler-city to reveal much more than this.
Nedeljáková, as you probably know, has done excellent genre work from Hostel and Hostel II, Isle of Dogs, and many more. She is not only talented, but gorgeous. Fans love her face… and her flawless figure, so I just have to bring up the unfortunate combination of the wrong outfit and careless camera angles. Nedeljáková looks better, and deserves better. In fact, the flat, uninspired cinematography doesn’t do anyone any favors (least of all the audience) and it brings Just One Drink down quite a bit, because a simple story such as this needs to have visual augmentation.
The short is well-acted, the dialogue is up to par, here’s gore galore, and it’s intriguing enough to turn into a feature – but as it stands now in its 19-minute form, Just One Drink is merely average. I look forward to seeing what de Burgh will do with more time and more money.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
