Review by
Sue Finn
Directed by: Charles B. Unger
Starring: Joshua Warren Bush, Ray Chang, Chris Wu, Grace Shen, Walker Haynes, Ciera Foster
Marcus (Joshua Warren Bush) is a special needs adult living in a
group home. At the beginning of the film, he is watching his favourite
show ‘Apocalyptic Zombies’ with his elderly friend Doris, who also
happens to be the owner of the home. Unfortunately, at a penultimate
scene in the show, Doris is struck by a heart attack and passes away
leaving Marcus bereft, and more aware than ever of his lack of family.
This ignites in Marcus a desire to find his long-lost mother, a woman
whose name he doesn’t even know.
Meanwhile, he also befriends Kim (Chris Wu), a drug addict but
also someone who can provide him with the care and stability Marcus has
been craving, by allowing the special needs man into his home and
family. Marcus also gets a job at the family laundromat and starts to
come out of his shell, discovering skills and abilities he didn’t know
he had.
And still we watch that zombie show along with Marcus as a show within
the film, its blue tones and soapy acting in sharp contrast to the clear
visuals and realistic dialogue of Marcus’s reality.
When his mother is located in state prison, Marcus is excited to finally
know where she has been, but the quest to find her takes another turn
when the drug dealers in Kim’s world bleed into his. Will the skills and
survival instincts he learnt from ‘Apocalyptic Zombies’ help keep him
and the group home safe?
Essentially a drama that features scenes from a very tame zombie TV
show, this has no real horror elements to speak of, so if you were drawn
by the words ‘zombie apocalypse’, you will be disappointed.
Directed by Charles B Unger in his first feature film since 2008,
and written by Richard Soriano (who also stars as Kim’s father),
this is a cuddly jumper movie that doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel,
and just takes its time to tell its story about the desire for family
and connections. It has good intentions and because of this, it's
difficult to critique, but from a purely critical perspective it has a
few glaring flaws. It's overlong and meandering; it feels as if the
film-makers loved the story and characters so much that they failed to
take a discerning look at things and cut where necessary. This film
needs a much tighter focus and clearer endgame in order to really
connect.
The music by David G Russell sounds inappropriately like the
theme song from a kids' show about science, and the poster seems to be
pointing to a whacky almost cartoonish tone, which feels at odds with
some of the more dramatic elements the filmmakers seem to want us to
experience. The biggest issue with this film really is the tone - it’s
all over the place and struggles to marry the disparate pieces of story
and genre.
The central performance by Bush is convincing and held a lot of this
movie together when the script failed to engage, but unfortunately that
just isn’t enough to sustain a 105-minute movie.
My Apocalyptic Thanksgiving is on US VOD now. A UK/ROI
release has yet to be announced.
