Writer, producer, director, and star Dan Eberle plays the big, silent type in neo-noir CUT TO BLACK
CUT TO BLACK (Dan Eberle, 2013)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, October 18
212-924-3363
insurgentpictures.com
www.cinemavillage.com
Winner of the Audience Award at the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival, Cut to Black is a dark, gritty slice of neo-noir from writer, director, producer, and star Dan Eberle. Part brooding Mickey Rourke, part humorless Vin Diesel, Eberle (The Local, Prayer to a Vengeful God) plays brooding, humorless disgraced ex-cop Bill Ivers, a big, hulking man who doesn’t say much as he goes through his lonely daily existence. Running out of money to pay the landlord — whose wife (Alexandra Mingione) he is sleeping with — Ivers is surprised by a visit from an old police friend, Gunther (Beau Allulli), who takes him to meet with his former boss, John Lord (James Alba), who wants Ivers to track down a man who is stalking his biological daughter, Jessica (Jillaine Gill). Ivers at first is hesitant, not wanting to get involved in anything having to do with Lord, a possible gubernatorial candidate, but he can’t say no to 200 G’s. It turns out that Jessica is working as a stripper, and her longtime boyfriend, a sleazeball named Duane (Joe Stipek), owes a fat wad of cash to local gangster Yates (Paul Bowen). Ivers can’t help himself from doing what he thinks is right, so he’s soon in the middle of it all, with all kinds of people wanting him out of the picture. Eberle regular cinematographer James Parsons shoots Cut to Black in sharp black-and-white, offering a unique view of modern-day Brooklyn (as well as Manhattan, Queens, and upstate New York). Eberle might not have a lot of range as an actor, but he dominates the screen with a firm presence, especially when Parsons zooms in on his beaten and battered face. The pacing is relatively slow until the twists start piling up one after another, some predictable, some not, others just plain strange, as Ivers is determined to see things through to the potentially violent end. As low-budget crime thrillers go, Cut to Black packs quite a stylish little punch. The film opens October 18 at Cinema Village, with Eberle and other members of the cast and crew on hand for a Q&A following the 7:15 screening.