Dennis Harvey Film CriticThe femme fatale is alive and well in Los Angeles-set indie “No Way Out,” an old-fashioned noir dressed up in the steamy decadence of an erotic thriller.
Trouble is, veteran producer Keith Kjarval’s debut solo screenplay doesn’t provide the kind of memorable characters or sharp plotting needed to punch across a dark crime melodrama.
Nor does first-time feature director Azi Rahman’s reasonably stylish walk on the wild side seduce sufficiently as a stylistic exercise, reaching for “Irreversible”-esque shock value without ever seeming very surprising or transgressive.There’s enough sex and violence here to hold attention for an hour and a half, but the care or conviction to explain why it all happens — let alone why viewers should care — proves elusive.
Vertical Entertainment is opening the film on a handful of U.S. theater screens on August 8, simultaneous with release to digital and VOD, where its primary audience will be found.
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