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Review: Betrayal

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Official Synopsis:  Three brothers (Daniel Portman, Brian Vernel, Calum Ross) return to the remote woodland where they killed their abusive father (Paul Higgins) only to discover his shallow grave is now empty, forcing them to question one another's loyalty with devastating consequences as fear and paranoia set in. Know this before going into Betrayal - originally titled Kill : (that's how you'll find it on Letterboxd) you will need to suspend a lot of disbelief. At first, it comes easy. We wouldn't have a movie if the brothers didn't make on crucial mistake at the beginning of the film.  But as the film went on, it was more of a struggle to continue to give it grace. The way flashbacks are introduced felt a bit clumsy, even though they are absolutely necessary for the story. There's a bigger secret hinted at throughout that in the end just felt like more of a distraction.  On the other side of it, Daniel Portman gives an amazing performance. He's always be

Review: Killer Heat

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Official synopsis:  Follows twin brothers (Richard Madden) who find themselves in a dangerous love triangle on an isolated Greek island. The investigation is given to "The Jealousy Man," a wounded detective. (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) I would love to know what the working title of this film was, because I cannot imagine Killer Heat being the first choice. It is however, the first red flag in a film that it's horrible, but is very uninspired. Look, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is my favorite actor and he would do really well in a modern noir with a great script (Rian Johnson, stop giving him cameos only!) but this just wasn't it. I'm offering it a lot of grace for him, Richard Madden, and Shalene Woodley. While the central mystery is easy to guess, I just found this hollow. The narration and the actual dialogue between characters don't mesh well and I kept wishing these exact people were just in a better movie. Everything was disjointed, especially when they incorporate f