Muddled movie gets metal-head details right

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This article was published 13/10/2006 (6913 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I can’t really give Black Bridge a big thumbs-up, but I can throw it a few devil-horns for the crazed fervour with which it descends into high school headbanging culture, circa 1984.

This no-frills, no-budget black-and-white feature from Winnipeg filmmaker Kevin Doherty wasn’t just shot under nearly impossible conditions. It was actually shot twice (!) under nearly impossible conditions after the cameraman was robbed at an ATM and thieves made off with a bag containing almost all of Doherty’s master footage.

That’s a heckuva do-over.

After a completely chaotic opening scene, Doherty follows Adrian (Adam Smoluk) and his metal-head friends as they are drawn into a mystery involving a possible satanic murder.

The heavy stuff alternates with deliberately dopey drug comedy and foul-mouthed dialogue, especially from Clive (Jason Malloy), who says the F-word after every single sentence he utters.

But dramatic-comedy is a tricky genre for anyone. In the hands of a feature-film rookie the two modes tend to trip over each other.

The comedy often tries too hard, and it’s clear that drastic cutting has decimated the mechanics of the murder subplot.

Leaving aside the extremes of drama and comedy, Doherty does much better with the in-between stuff, like some well-shot footage of a sprawling bush party and a rather sweet late-night détente between a metal-head and a prep (Raimey Gallant). Doherty is also trying to do for the underrated 1980s what Dazed & Confused did for the 1970s, by nailing down the specifics of the decade. Some of the observational stuff is terrific, like the guys making heavy metal paraphernalia in shop class, stealing smokes from the Sev, fighting in inter-school brawls at the mall, and playing Coleco video games.

Then there’s the characters’ truly awesome collection of heavy metal shirts and their blatantly fake 1980s hair. (And to be fair, the discount wigs don’t look any worse than Mark Wahlberg’s coifs in Rock Star.)

The crew and cast — and most cast members pitched in as crew and most crew members pitched in as cast — do valiant work. David Evans is a creepy highlight as Mr. Simmons, the would-be cool teacher who wants to party with the boys and sleep with the girls. Smoluk’s Adrian casts a light on his hilariously inarticulate peer group as the “marginally more sensitive guy.”

There are good things here, as there were in Doherty’s shorts, I Come in Pieces and Something for Santa. But in expanding to feature-length filmmaking, Doherty needs to heed the advice of the metal-heads from FUBAR, who reduced movie analysis to two simple precepts: “Turn up the good and turn down the suck.”

Still, anyone who can shoot a movie twice on $6,300 clearly lives by that other FUBAR motto — “Just give ‘er.” And Doherty is already givin’ ‘er on another project, a camping comedy called Cadabrketish.

Movie Review

Black Bridge

Directed by Kevin Doherty

Cinematheque

To Oct. 19

2 and 1/2 stars out of five