Movie Review
After watching Martin McDonagh’s masterful film Banshees of Inisher, I have come to the conclusion that men will do anything in the world except treat their asses for treatment. So when William Atticus Parker’s sophomore film Atabilious opens with his leading man Stephen (Leon Addison Brown), sitting in front of his therapist Andrea Hart (Whoopi Goldberg) talking about the loss of his son, I was pleasantly surprised.
She lives her life from one moment to the next, but the grief of losing her young son is starting to hit her hard. Until she meets a mysterious man named Vincent (Jeffrey Wright). Vincent tells him about a better way to process what happened to him and proceeds to hand him an envelope with a barcode on it. This envelope leads him to the titular underground bar ‘Atabilious’. Hints of strangeness provoke Stephen, who realizes that all is not so. Dr. Raphael Clearwater (Evan Jonigkeit) and Dr. Co-directed by Edward Gillespie (Mark Boone Junior).
He contacts his best friends Todd (Brooks Ashmanskas) and Mark (Joel De La Fuente), who help him find out more about a bar that claims to heal people suffering from grief by offering healing drinks. the cocktail was prepared by the bereavement coordinators. Stepping further into the center of the mystery, Stephen realizes that his now-deceased son used to work in a bar with his girlfriend, and that his death may be a cover-up for something bigger.
Now, the director has chosen to use a deliberately uneven structure to tell Parker’s tale so that its neo-noir elements really shine through. For much of the first act, you’ll be sitting there scratching your head in frustration. That is, until the relatively well-crafted second act begins and the conjoined ends of grief, guilt and revenge, emerge. There are some interesting twists and turns here and there, but the third act kind of falls on its head, leading to an interesting start to an ending that feels disappointing.
Parker, whose previous film was shot in black and white, opts for a neon color palette for Atrabiliou. I mean, I get that the approach is more plot-driven than character-driven, but the half-assed cameos from well-known American actors and the haphazardly constructed continuity really hurt the film instead of helping it.
To add to that, none of the acting performances here really stand out. Maybe Jeffrey Wright, I think, has a commanding screen presence, even when he’s just sitting on top of you and looking dead in your eyes, none of these characters stay with you. Mark Boone Junior’s antagonist feels interesting on paper, but he’s not given a lot of material to work with, so even when he references Macbeth or dips the weapon of justice in human blood, you’re left free.
I know the 19-year-old director is working on a micro-budget here, but as he chooses similar thematic elements of grief, loss and its aftermath that he already explored in his debut, you’d think he’s not yet ready to tackle the weight or seriousness of the subject matter.
I’ll also note that the weapon of rage here—a miniature version of Wall Street’s Big Bull feels like a direct metaphor for how people exploit all that is good for humanity for personal, capitalistic gain—but this element never really explored and made me made me believe I read too much.
Overall
All in all, Atrabilious feels like another lost opportunity for Parker. A film that could have been more interesting with a bigger budget and better post-production feels hastily put together in its current state.