Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Lowlife Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf September 30, 2018

To help make his directorial debut emerge as something special, Ryan Prows (who also scripts with four other people) tries to make something very upsetting. “Lowlife” is a tribute to underworld crime films, especially one with Tarantinio-esque zigs and zags, with the movie explored in a distinctly non-linear fashion, opening opportunities for Prows to surprise. Viewers have been here before, but “Lowlife” does retain a certain oddity as it dips a few toes into the pooled sweat of Luchador cinema, while its quest to remain unpredictable for the first hour is laudable, before the whole things starts to feel like a chore to watch. Prows has the right inspiration, but stamina is difficult to come by in this knotted thriller, which is filled with grotesqueries and despair, hoping to make a dent in a subgenre that’s been fully exhausted over the last 25 years.

In Los Angeles, Teddy (Mark Burnham) is a crime boss who specializes in human trafficking and organ harvesting, preying on illegal immigrants with help from his enforcers, who dress as ICE officers to keep a low profile. Finding hard times with customers who don’t repay their debts, Teddy turns to El Monstruo (Ricardo Adam Zarate), the disgraced son of a mythical Luchador hero, to help enforce the rules. El Monstruo is expecting a child with Kaylee (Santana Dempsey), Teddy’s adopted daughter, excited by the upcoming birth, which is complicated by Kaylee’s heroin use. Crystal (Nicki Micheaux) is married to Dan (King Orba), who needs a kidney transplant. Paying Teddy everything she has, Crystal hopes the ghoul will use Kaylee as the match, as the pregnant runaway is Crystal and Dan’s biological child, sold off immediately after birth. As kidnappings and arguments commence, Crystal begins to understand what she’s committed to, mixed up in bad business with El Monstruo and, soon, Keith (Shaye Ogbonna), one of Teddy’s clients who won’t pay, who’s joined by parolee Randy (Jon Oswald), a goon with a swastika face tattoo who’s suddenly caught up in the mess.

While Teddy has the appearance of a pervy uncle, he’s not one to be messed with. His introduction to “Lowlife” is startling, identified as an easily perturbed ringleader of a human trafficking business, which is housed underneath the Mexican restaurant he owns. He’s a bad dude, casually taking lives and pulling people apart for profit, while the building contains steel cells for selling young girls at a low price. It’s Hell on Earth, but it’s everyday business for the characters, with Teddy’s crew collecting victims at Crystal’s fleabag motel, making her part of the process. The toxic webbing extends to El Monstruo, who’s struggling with his place in the world, unable to live up to heroic expectations set by his father, making his time inside the tight Luchador mask particularly painful, rubbing away what remains of his masculinity.

“Lowlife” is broken up into three chapters, with each segment detailing how certain characters react to issues with bodily harm. Relationships are exposed along the way as well, with Crystal moving from an outside witness to the main character before the story is over. The first two acts primarily explore El Monstruo and Crystal, with the opposing forces working to keep Teddy calm, only to realize how deep into trouble they are. “Lowlife” does an agreeable job feeling around these personalities, understanding them more than simple cartoons for the slaughter. El Monstruo is especially fascinating, cursed with an uncontrollable rage that renders him unconscious for short periods of time, after he’s caused unimaginable harm to those unwisely challenging him (a great sight gag has the enforcer snapping out of his slumber holding just a severed hand). While Prows permits all kinds of ugliness to grease up the production, he wisely holds back with the most enigmatic player in the underworld game, keeping the damaged, masked heir to Mexican glory an intriguing question mark throughout the feature, while Zarate delivers defined acting in the role, handling the bruiser’s desires for a proper life with his reality as a man of violence.

Less successful is the introduction of Keith and Randy, finding “Lowlife” achieving some momentum with the Kaylee kidnapping scheme, only to rewind the clock to bring on two more contestants. Prows prizes screenplay knotting over pace, letting the air slowly leak out of the film with Randy, who’s fresh out of prison, left with a swastika tattoo on his face for his troubles, making him a hard man to hide in society. The idea of “Lowlife” is to keep dashing around in time, pointing out ties that were hiding in plain sight, but Prows places far too much concentration on the tricks of the writing, which tend to dominate the picture’s second half, making the viewing experience more about set-ups and payoffs than a cleanly defined tale of snowballing disaster and rotten people suddenly realizing their mistakes.

Lowlife Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (2.39:1 aspect ratio) presentation for "Lowlife" supports the feature's HD-shot cinematography in full. It's not a dazzling cinematic experience to begin with, but sharpness is there for the study, giving a full read of facial surfaces, including the bumpy skin of El Monstruo, which bulges out of his smooth mask. Locations hold their distances and decoration. Costuming is fibrous, mostly dealing with everyday wear. Colors are capable, preserving the L.A. scenery with bright urban decay and greenery. El Monstruo's mask is one of the more pronounced hues in the picture, along with Teddy's purplish pimp wear. Skintones are accurate. Delineation is defined to satisfaction.

Lowlife Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix doesn't carry a great deal of surround activity, but stretches of violence and atmosphere create some expansive activity. It's more of a frontal listening event, with dialogue exchanges the priority here, and voices sound crisp and clean. Accents and languages are juggled without confusion, and surges in rage do not fuzz out highs and lows. Scoring cues keep their synth-driven power, offering fullness when suspense kicks in. Some sets keep their steel interiors, offering slight echo, and sound effects are distinct, including El Monstruo's rage blackouts, which provide a loud ringing to sell the extreme fury of the moment. Low-end is sparse, but heavier contact and musical moods maintain weight.

Lowlife Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (2:50, HD) is an unfortunately brief overview of the "Lowlife" origin story, with key cast and crew sitting on a folding chair in the middle of a tiny, white room sharing their perspective on the feature's substance and progressive creative achievements. Nothing's in-depth here, just soundbites and platitudes.

• Short Films (HD) include "Fiends" (1:24), "Thugs" (7:00), and "Monsters" (2:21).

• And a Theatrical Trailer (1:59, HD) is included.

Lowlife Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Lowlife" is grim, though levity is here, but it's rarely effective. The bleakness is heavier than Prows imagines, but he's good with introductions, commencing the movie with passable mysteries and strange characters, creating an unusual realm of guilt where everyone participating in the central crime has to deal with something greater than immediate danger. "Lowlife" doesn't hold its tension, but the Tarantino tribute contributes a solid hour of macabre happenings and volatile people, and while that's not enough to dazzle, it keeps the picture mostly compelling.