A movie, starring Will Keenan (Tromeo in Tromeo & Juliet) and directed by Trent Haaga (a fellow Tromaville citizen), featuring a man systematically dismantling his victim piece by piece as revenge for some unknown misdeed. Sounds good? Well, okay, I don’t blame you if you aren’t really drooling in anticipation of this movie. I blame you even less for not thinking that it could be absolutely hilarious. But, trust me, this movie is fantastic and fantastically funny.
Keenan plays Lance Reed, a man with a troubled past who accepts a fateful lift froma stranger (Timothy Muskatell) after his car breaks down. It turns out that Reed cannot remember the stranger at all but the stranger certainly remembers Reed and so begins a hilarious tale of unrepentant nastiness, perversity and possible limb removal. Not to mention the opportunity, perhaps, to find out just how the stranger was wronged.
While it’s never really a slow movie, I will say for those who need their films to work at breakneck speed that Chop begins slightly less assured than it quickly becomes.
The acting is superb. Will Keenan is just hilarious, whether spitting out a stream of venomous insults or waking up to find out that something has drastically changed while he’s been asleep. Muskatell proves more than equal to Keenan and provides audiences with one of the most entertaining baddies in recent years, a man with his own very peculiar set of morals. There are others onscreen, who prove equally memorable, but the movie is a two-hander for the most part (bad pun intended).
Haaga directs with skill, the film may not have that much movement or the budget to use a variety of sets but it never feels too staged or lacking in any way. He gets everything just right, working things to emphasise every great line of dialogue in Adam Minarovich’s fantastic script.
Gorehounds will be pleased to know that there are one or two moments of nastiness here but it’s all done with the emphasis on the overall twisted humour of the situation rather than a need for anatomical authenticity.
Watch this film with the wrong person beside you and it will be a frustrating and uncomfortable time. Watch it with someone who shares a warped sense of humour, however, and it will be one of the best films that you’d never previously heard of. Definitely worth seeing, a new favourite of mine.
DIRECTOR: TRENT HAAGA
STARS: WILL KEENAN, TIMOTHY MUSKATELL, MALAYA MANSON, ELINA MADISON
RUNTIME: 98 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: USA
Film Rating: 
