After losing her job and imploding her latest dysfunctional relationship, Olive (Amanda Crew) flees the city for the weekend, escaping to the countryside for some peace and self-reflection. She rents an ornate country house from an eccentric widower named Harvey (Robert Patrick). Soon two generations collide with terrifying results as Olive awakens Harvey’s homicidal tendencies and is plunged into a blood-soaked fight for her life. More than your average slasher film, TONE-DEAF provides a dark critique of the bizarre cultural and political climate that currently exists.
This spectacularly weird and wonderful film has some of the most biting humor and solid scares. Tone-Deaf is left vs. right, generational romp through madness. The music is in your face and perfect. The script is frankly, shocking. I did not see many of the twists coming and damn, is that refreshing. The hyper Millenial stereotypes show up as modern art fever dreams for our terrifying antagonist, Harvey. Elaborate sets and repeat framing create the illusion that you will be able to predict certain tropes, but you’re dead wrong.
Amanda Crew as Olive is absolutely hilarious in her sense of entitlement and charm. She delivers this dialogue like one who has had to sit through brunch surrounded by girls whose Instagram is life. She is fabulous. Robert Patrick, who always brings to mind a bit of evil from his iconic T2 role, is balls to the wall amazing as the Baby Boomer off his proverbial rocker. As much blood as we see in this film, honest to God, the most startling thing is when Patrick’s character breaks the fourth wall. I was unsure at first if I was seeing what I was seeing, but the monologue lasts long enough for you to realize your perception as a viewer has been skewered. I was genuinely uncomfortable and dammit, I’m a Gen Xer. Writer/Director Richard Bates, Jr. has not only nailed the eccentricities of these two generations but lights a fire under the ass of the audience with quippy dialogue and carefully placed gore (yes, that’s a thing). Tone-Deaf is undeniably fun and fresh.
Saban Films will release TONE-DEAF in theaters and On Demand on August 23, 2019.
TONE-DEAF is written and directed by Richard Bates, Jr. (Trash Fire, Suburban Gothic), and stars Robert Patrick (“Scorpion,” Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Amanda Crew (“Silicon Valley,” The Age of Adaline), Kim Delaney (“Chicago Fire,” “NYPD Blue”), AnnaLynne McCord (Fired Up!, “90210”), Keisha Castle-Hughes (“Game of Thrones,” Whale Rider), Hayley Marie Norman (I Am the Night, “Lonely and Horny”), and Ray Wise (“Fresh Off the Boat,” “Twin Peaks”).
To give you an idea of why Fantasia International Film Festival is my favorite redheaded stepchild of a festival, here are a few films from my youth that still haunt/entertain the crap out of me. 1. Poltergeist: the film my father thought a 2-year-old should watch. 2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: because a sci-fi musical with Tim Curry in drag should be shown in every Kindergarten class on the planet I inhabit. 3. Princess Bride: one of the most quotable and inconceivable films, I mean that with the utmost respect and if you say otherwise I will fight you (with a sword). 4. Pulp Fiction: a film whose dialogue is filled with sermon, innumerable expletives, drug overdose, and bloody violence for days was just the beginning of a long career of effed up magic. Love it or hate it, it was original. So, for me, Fantasia encompasses all that is weird, wonderful, wacky, wtf, and any other “w” descriptor I’m missing out on in this precise moment.
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