Cade: The Tortured Crossing (2023)

Cade: The Tortured Crossing (2023). 1h 40m

“In short: A wealthy benefactor funds a hospital to study genome editing that is plagued by black-market medicine theft and poor maintenance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNeil Breen makes many decisions in this film that, if they were part of a more complete and coherent vision, would be bold and truly represent ambitious B-movie filmmaking.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAesthetically: The entire movie is shot in green screen, over stock photos. Establishing shots are also stock footage. This is really exciting to me; it represents a really interesting way to do a film on a budget and nobody else would dare to do a film that way.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNarratively: The first 20 minutes of this movie has a lot going on, and it honestly made me wonder if Breen had learned from his previous films. Heu0026#39;s certainly learned a few editing tricks. But as the film continues, itu0026#39;s clear that Breen still hasnu0026#39;t figured out how to write a plot with a beginning, middle, and end; scenes happen in seemingly random order and repeat information.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd as usual for Breen, characters speak vaguely without specific details or characterization. This is especially frustrating because it feels like this film, of all his post-Fateful Findings films, really has a clear and interesting premise.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUltimately I came out of this film really wanting to see Breen direct another writeru0026#39;s work, or another writer direct a Breen screenplay. Both the central narrative idea and the directorial style have interesting things to say, but they both need some external contribution to really make them click.”