Rating summary
Movie | | 3.5 |
Video | | 4.0 |
Audio | | 4.0 |
Extras | | 3.5 |
Overall | | 4.0 |
VANish Blu-ray Movie Review
Not Your Average Road Trip
Reviewed by Michael Reuben February 21, 2015
In 1996, Robert Rodriguez published Rebel Without a Crew, in which he recounted the making of
his breakthrough film, El Mariachi, at an
initial production cost of just $7000. VANish, the first
feature film by writer, director, producer and co-star Bryan Bockbrader, carries a special
acknowledgment to Rodriguez, which Bockbrader has said is entirely because of the detailed
advice provided by the director's book. Perhaps even more important than such practical elements
as the appendix that Rodriguez entitled "The Ten Minute Film Course" is the can-do
spirit that animates the whole of Rodriguez's account, which is the opposite of that found among so many who
inhabit the fringes of show business bemoaning their lack of opportunity. Rodriguez created his
opportunity simply by doing the work: writing, shooting, editing, applying his imagination
to transform limitations into creative solutions. Bockbrader brought the same initiative to VANish,
and the result, while its influences are easy to spot, is startlingly fresh and entertaining.
The limitation that Bockbrader imposed on himself as both writer and director was to set all of
the film's action inside a plumber's van (hence the capitalization of the title's first three letters,
VANish). This becomes more visually interesting than it initially sounds, because the van ends up
with four occupants, with shifting loyalties and escalating conflicts, so that the dramatic
possibilities expand until the very end of the film. The van travels a long road, allowing
Bockbrader to vary both the lighting and the view out the windows (some of it stock footage),
and several additional players enter and exit the vehicle along the way. With just a little
imagination, Brockbrader has turned a van's interior into a busier place than the single setting of
many a great stage play.
After a teaser involving an older couple (Joe Davis and Hope Diaz) who have their tryst
interrupted, the van's initial two passengers are Jack (Austin Abke), a former soldier in
Afghanistan whose father owns the vehicle, and Max (Bockbrader), a cocksure loudmouth,
whom Jack tolerates because they have known each other since they were kids. In
VANish's most
obvious nod to Quentin Tarantino's
Pulp Fiction, the two
of them chatter about smart phones,
Jack's ex-girlfriend, Jasmine (Denise Dorado), and other "guy" stuff with a kind of random
intensity that turns out not to be random at all. Then they reach their destination and, like Jules
and Vincent, "get into character" (although their characters aren't nearly as impressive or
intimidating as the professionals memorably played by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travota).
Not long afterward, the van has two more passengers: Shane (Adam Guthrie), who served with
Jack in Iraq and is either a bit slow or suffering from some form of PTSD (possibly both), and
Emma (Maiara Walsh), who is the "odd man out" on this ride, and not just because she is a
woman. She is also the only passenger who isn't there voluntarily. A college student, Emma has
been kidnapped for a $5 million ransom to be paid by her wealthy father, Carlos (Danny Trejo),
even though she assures the three young men that Carlos won't pay, because she and her father
have been estranged for years. Jack, clearly the mastermind, thinks otherwise. When Carlos calls
the number from which Jack sent him Emma's ransom video, Jack instructs the furious dad to
meet them the next day at a remote spot outside the town of Barstow.
But getting there is, as one character, accurately dubs it, a highway to hell, punctuated by
arguments, threats, fights, conspiracies, secrets revealed and no small amount of bloodletting.
Max is the obvious troublemaker, because he can neither sit still nor keep quiet. If he senses that
someone has a sore spot, Max jabs at it. If things are too quiet, Max throws a beer can at
someone's head. If Emma seems too relaxed, Max points a gun at her head. Where Jack remains
focused on the ransom, Max seems to care more about the thrill of being an outlaw, to his
partners' growing frustration. But as heat, exhaustion and uncertainty wear down all four, Max
turns out to be only the most obvious lunatic in the group—and possibly the least extreme of
them all.
Much of
VANish plays like a black comedy that recalls Rodriguez's original
From Dusk Till
Dawn, especially the first half during the Gecko brothers' twisted road trip. One of the film's
best sequences involves a California highway patrolman, Officer Darrow, played by horror
legend Tony Todd, who stops the group for a busted tail light, then takes his sweet time running
the license plate, jabbering with the occupants and generally entertaining himself on what is
otherwise probably a boring day. (According to Brockbrader's commentary, Todd improvised
extensively.) Meanwhile, the four occupants sit tensely, desperately trying to act normal, hands
poised on concealed weapons, scanning Darrow's face for any sign of suspicion. It's an
accomplished set piece of which any writer/director could be proud, let alone a first-timer.
Brockbrader demonstrates an even more mischievous streak when he has the group check into a
motel for the night, leaving their vehicle empty. No sooner are they gone than two masked
thieves break in, but they postpone a thorough rifling through the van's contents while one of
them holds forth extensively, in subtitled Spanish, on how the white people who own this vehicle
deserve their fate because of how Mexicans are treated in America. Maybe if they had talked less,
they could have completed their task before being interrupted by another unexpected intruder.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, all the world's a van, and all the people merely passengers. They
have their entrances and exits, and some are messier than others.
VANish Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
The cinematographer on VANish was Colby Oliver, who has been a gaffer and camera operator
on various shorts and TV shows and, like most of the film's young cast and crew, is working
hard to advance in the industry. The film was shot on an Arri Alexa, a professional quality
camera that the production was able to obtain at the last minute for reasons explained in the
commentary, even though the rental fees were far beyond their limited means. Thanks to the
Alexa's superior quality and what Brockbrader calls "the magic of color correction" in post-production, VANish looks far more professional
than one would expect for a film shot for no
money in thirteen days. MPI/Dark Sky Films' 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, which was
presumably sourced directly from digital files, is similarly impressive.
The image is sharp, crisp and detailed, except where the contrast has been deliberately intensified
to convey the intense heat of the California sun, at which point highlights are sometimes blown
out. (Brockbrader points out one specific scene where changing the color and contrast allowed
him to convert a sequence shot in L.A. under blue skies into one that appeared to be shot in a hot,
sandy wasteland.) The color palette is consistently warm, and the copious blood in the film's
latter half is rusty red. The black levels in night scenes are appropriately dark, although there is
rarely any scene that isn't illuminated to some degree.
VANish runs a taut 79 minutes, and MPI has used a BD-25, achieving an average bitrate of 21.98
Mbps, with peaks well above 30 Mbps in scenes of intense action. Especially with digital
origination, and given the strategically placed still shots in which characters hold forth on one
subject or another, this kind of average rate is perfectly acceptable. Compression, banding and
other artifacts were not observed.
VANish Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
VANish's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, surrounds the viewer with the
sensation of a moving vehicle, with the sound field shifting subtly depending on the camera's
perspective (driver's seat, rear of the vehicle, outside looking in, etc.). The surrounds go quiet
when the van comes to a stop, but individual actions stray to the left or right. The dialogue is
very clear and frequently very important. Michael Tuller, who has contributed synth
programming for such films as The Social Network,
did the score and also supervised the
soundtrack selections, which include an original song written and performed by star Maiara
Walsh over the closing credits.
VANish Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Commentary with Actor/Writer/Director Bryan Bockbrader and Actor Adam
Guthrie: This is a free-wheeling, energetic and informative discussion about the making
of VANish—a title suggested by Bockbrader's mother, in one of many small revelations.
The overriding tone is one of disbelief that the makeshift team managed to accomplish so
much with so little, with boosts along the way from cult heroes like Tony Todd and
Danny Trejo, both of whom were last-minute recruits. Luck played its part too. They were
able to afford an Arri Alexa only because the rental company had no Red cameras
available, having leased them all to Michael Bay's crew to shoot Transformers: Age of
Extinction. So, just as with rental cars, they gave Bockbrader a free upgrade. (For this
reason alone, Bay is thanked in the end credits.)
- Blooper Reel (1080p; 2.39:1; 8:10): Everything from malfunctioning props to Tony
Todd's weirder improvs to the van breaking down for real on an L.A. freeway.
- Alternate Endings (1080p; 2.39:1; 9:26): Three different resolutions are included. All of
them build on suggestions contained earlier in the script, and one can imagine the appeal
of each one on the page. But the ending chosen for the finished product is the best fit for
the rhythm of the film. Bockbrader discusses his choice in the commentary
- Trailer (1080p; 2.39:1; 1:32): The trailer walks a fine line between revealing plot
elements and omitting their connections.
- Additional Trailers: At startup the disc plays trailers for Starry Eyes, The House at the
End of Time, Summer of Blood and Late Phases: Night of the Lone Wolf,
which can be
skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc
loads.
VANish Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
The list of Tarantino and Rodriguez imitators is long and largely undistinguished. Brockbrader
stands out from the pack because he didn't imitate what these two famous partners-in-crime
actually did. Instead, he studied how they did it, then applied those lessons to an original story
idea that could have easily worn out its welcome after the first act, if its writer/director hadn't
kept pushing it in new and surprising directions. VANish isn't deep or profound, but it's lively
and sometimes even surprising. That's enough to recommend it, especially in this solid Blu-ray
presentation.