This was originally published for cutprintfilm.com back in March of 2015. But since the site/publication has apparently vanished - I'm posting it here with a few updates and to honor the career of the last John Ashton. Enjoy...
Uncle John doesn’t
waste any time getting started. Less than three minutes in we’re thrown in to
the aftermath/cover-up of a murder, and, in my opinion, it works
thanks to the eerie score. Before we go any further I have to say that the minimalist droning score,
courtesy of composers Adam Robl & Shawn Sutta, is both inspiring and a key
element to this film. Not to overshadow or take anything away from the
performances but without the music I personally feel Uncle John would be an entirely different film (not necessarily a
worse off film, but certainly not as intriguing). And what’s even more of a
success with Uncle John is that
director Steven Piet knows when to use music and when not to use any music. Film scores are important but they can sometimes
be a distraction depending on how they’re used. Piet understands the genre he’s
working within. Uncle John is a
noir/murder-mystery so it requires a bit of silence from time to time in order
to build tension and set the right ambiance.
After the mild anxiety-inducing opening sequence where we
see our protagonist, “John” (John Ashton), trying to get rid of the nameless
body, the film’s tone drastically shifts out of nowhere and we follow a young graphic
designer (“Ben”) in a seemingly separate/unrelated story centered around him
and his co-worker/love interest “Kate”. Naturally the two stories connect in
the final act (as do the reasons for the murder at the very beginning) but for the
most part it’s like we’re watching two completely different movies for the
first two thirds of the movie (we eventually come to learn there’s a strong
family connection that binds the two stories together).
Uncle John is
bound to be compared to something like Blue
Ruin (both films are “young-spirited” indie noirs that take place in small
towns) but in my opinion it falls somewhere in between Clay Pigeons (without the
humor), Shotgun Stories, Blood Simple, Night Moves (2014) and a (good) mumblecore film like Cold Water (in terms of style &
cinematography, Uncle John also shares
some of the same DNA as Chad Hartigan’s This
Is Martin Bonner – another solid straightforward American indie that
floated under the radar). But all comparisons & similarities aside, this is
very much its own movie. It’s easy to take a directorial debut and compare it
to a million other titles but Steven Piet crafted a solid debut. Uncle John’s strongest quality is that
the story is simple yet, as I stated earlier, it pulls you in. Piet doesn’t
rely too much on “cool” Tarantino-esque time shifting or forced “innovative”
camera work. Piet seems to have a somewhat of an old soul as he’s drawn to
simplicity & minimalism instead of “bells & whistles” (I don’t mean to
discredit today’s young filmmakers but it is pretty rare to find a film like
this from someone Piet’s age). With Uncle
John we get a lot of hints & implications rather than things spelled
out for us which is something I appreciate.
On an existential level, watching John Ashton give it his all in the lead (title) role felt like he was intentionally trying to shed the stigma of his Beverly Hills Cop notoriety. There’s certainly nothing wrong with being remembered as one of the key supporting characters in a successful Hollywood franchise but Ashton is a seasoned actor with decades of experience. I always felt his presence in films like Midnight Run & Gone Baby Gone were overlooked & underrated). Even though Uncle John won’t get the same audience as a studio feature, this is still a career-defining role for Ashton.
