"Murder, Anyone?" - An interesting film that should be a radio play!

 

Murder, Anyone? 

“Murder, Anyone?” makes a very good point in highlighting that in the world of theater,  no one can take away the writers’ power. That’s almost true when you are comparing it to what happens with film screenwriters. The line about every young executive who has taken a Robert McKee course thinks that they can write, hits home with an authentic “ding” but at least those young executives thought enough to step into structure since most older film executives never bothered at all. 

But back to the indie film “Murder, Anyone?” which I will describe as “charming” and actually worth watching or maybe listening too. This might play better if you just listen to it. The dialogue is slick and funny. The younger actors don’t match their voices but maybe that’s on purpose since the writer,  Gordon Bressack, the Emmy-winning writer of Pinky and the Brain, is an intelligent storyteller. 

Bressack passed at the age of 70, but he had adapted a number of plays into screenplays and that’s how “Murder, Anyone?” started, as a play. 

The film follows the creative process of two, older writers George (Maurice LaMarche) and Charlie (Charles M. Howell IV), as they try to work out the kinks in their play, or is it a film? 

Either way, the filmmaker moves us from film transitions using black-and-white to represent the writing room and color to shade in the story of a murder that the two writers are working on. That story, the inside story, involves the mysterious Cooper (Kristos Andrews), who is now living off his wealthy great-uncle and aunt.

The British athlete meets his neighbor, Bridgette (Galadriel Stineman) and they seem to click but then a man arrives in a chicken costume (yes, a chicken costume) comes barging through the door as only a man wearing a chicken suit would. That chicken costume-wearing man is Blain (Spencer Breslin), who has just arrived, a day early, for the costume party. But … wait …. 

Blain and Cooper have a shady history and may or may not be planning something for reasons unknown. 

So the question looms, can George and Charlie come to an understanding to finish whatever it is that they are writing? 

“Murder, Anyone?” is packed with humor that’s easy on the ears but as a film, I find out amateurish and not impressive, at all. But as a radio play, I think this can have a long shelf life because it’s funny stuff. 

“Murder, Anyone?” 

- Nominated, Best Actress, Best Director, Best writer, Best Score, Best Picture, Best Ensemble, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design. Filmquest, 2022.

- Oh, Scares Film Festival, 2022.

Director: James Cullen Bressack.
Writer: Gordon Bressack.
Producers: James Cullen Bressack (p.g.a.) | Jarrett Furst | Gregori J. Martin.
Composer: Tim Jones.
Cinematographer: Michael Moghaddam.
Editor: Theoderic Ripper.
Production Designer: Anthony Pearce.