An Act Of War | Movie Review

Returning home from a harrowing tour overseas, veteran Jacob Nicks is a man in shambles. Shunning his family and relegating himself to an isolated existence, Jacob spends his days blindly fulfilling the same monotonous routine. His night job as a projectionist at a downtown New York theater, Ivana, a Russian prostitute he solicits when able, and the 16mm reels he views alone in his vacuous apartment are the only escape from his self-imposed imprisonment.

Things begin to take a turn for Jacob one night when he meets Marlon at his methodical diner stop following the evening shift. Marlon is a drug dealing jitter-box, a man with an ambitious mouth and an untrusting nature. Jacob and Marlon seem to be following the same path, lost men searching for their place in the world.

After a heartbreaking rejection by Ivana, Jacob turns to Marlon for the one thing he knows Marlon can provide him: Heroin. As his addiction and desolation increases, the instabilities of his own damaged consciousness begin to take over, leading Jacob down a path of paranoia and violence that lead to unexpected results.

As the tortured lead, Russ Russo injects Jacob with just enough emotion to enable us to relate, even as things begin to spiral out of control. He is the absolute heart and soul of the film, and his performance thankfully lives up to the task. This is not acting on the level of exaggeration, this is a carefully restrained portrait of a man whose fragile mind has no concept of its own fractured state. The reels of film nor the pinch of the needle are enough to free Jacob from his personal hell, though try he does. Russo’s performance reminds one of a more low-key PTSD suffering Travis Bickle.

As Marlon, comedian Doug E. Doug gives a performance not seen before from the generally more jovial actor. His Marlon is mild tempered, yet also living a similarly anguished existence. His vague attempt to refute Jacob’s descent into addiction speak more of a man selling a product, than that of the friend he presents himself as.

While not all of the cast worked for me (Joseph Gannascoli’s Frank seemed a tad over-the-top), the most impressive of the supporting cast was Natasha Alam as Ivana. Alam never presents her character as the ‘hooker with a heart of gold’, nor as some type of salvation for our hero. She is quite simply, a prostitute. She makes a quiet attempt at a ‘date’ with Jacob, yet it feels entirely ripe with pathetic guilt over his increasingly disparaging mental state, as opposed to any sort of genuine affection. Alam wears pain and contempt as a badge of honor upon the beautiful contours of her face and her limited work here shows her to be an actress worth following.

Strong performances are helpful, but where this film really shines is its striking visual style. Utilizing the monochromatic look of 40’s noir films, writer/director Ryan Kennedy captures the dire existence of Jacob’s descent through this visual style, as every frame feels as though we are witnessing Jacob’s tortured soul in shadow.

Though this approach can feel gimmicky in lesser films, Kennedy showcases enough talent to both bookend the film in color, and also use this black & white canvas as a decisive storytelling device. Couple these choices with a carefully placed score that accentuates the tension and you have a filmmaker that knows how to put his audience into the pit of despair.

Accompanied by one of the more memorable scores of late, strong performances in a fairly bleak story captured with a unique visual style from a young director on the rise, “An Act of War” is a harrowing journey of a film that demands to be seen.

*An Act of War is now available on VOD at Amazon and iTunes.

Listen to our interview with An Act of War (formerly titled The Projectionist) filmmakers Ryan Kennedy and Atit Shah here.

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider