Prefer to listen rather than read? Listen Here!

        While I know I’ve often said that for the most part I don’t judge a book (or movie in this case) on its cover, during the New Hampshire Film Festival its a necessity. Before going to the festival you can spend hours online looking at each trailer for the films that are going to be shown (which I do), or you can grab the festival’s program book and read the descriptions for each film and make your viewing choices from there. I usually do both since I’m determined to cram as many films as possible into the 4 day festival. Doing it this way I sometimes end up seeing films that I’d usually have no intention of seeing. Two Step was one of those. The description given in the program just didn’t do it much justice:

                “Having already lost his parents and been kicked out of college, James turns up on his beloved grandmother’s doorstep only to watch her pass away. He then gets mixed up with a malicious con artist, Webb, who’s been preying on local seniors. Making the situation all the worse is that Webb has a nemesis of his own, Duane, a crime lord who operates out of a corner store and has just delivered his ultimatum.”

James Landry Hebert as Webb in Two Step (Photo courtesy of Alex R. Johnson)

                Based on this summary you’d think that Webb and James team up to go up against Duane. There have plenty of “crime thrillers” of this type and personally I feel that its a theme that’s been done to death, which is why I had no intention of seeing this one. But, because of the way I scheduled my day, I ended up in a showing of it anyways, and I’m really glad I did.

                This is more a movie of unfortunate consequences than a real “crime thriller”. I’m not going to bore you with a better description of it, mostly because I think that would give away too much. I guess what I can tell you would be that the paths of Webb and James don’t cross until about the middle of the movie, and when they do its violent and a little hard to watch.

                One of my favorite things about attending the New Hampshire Film Festival every year is the people watching. Its very interesting to me to watch the reactions of the audience during parts of whatever we may all be watching at the time. This year I was witness to two of the strongest audience reactions I’ve ever seen. One of them happened during a short film called Alatoni; the other happened during Two Step. You’d think that in this day and age most of us would be desensitized to TV and movie violence. For example: there were many extremely violent parts in Django Unchained, parts in which about a dozen (or more) people were killed in terrible ways, but I watched them all without so much as a flinch. For some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on, the violence depicted in Two Step was different. During certain parts of this movie the entire audience collectively gasped and turned their heads away in shock and horror... me included! Like I said, I’m not sure what was different about it, but it’s really a credit to the film makers that they could depict something that’s been done over and over again throughout movie history and yet manage to achieve that kind of audience reaction. And so to them I say “well done!”

                To you I say ignore the description given for Two Step and see it if you get the chance. Its well worth it!

Beth Broderick as Dot in Two Step (Photo courtesy of Alex R. Johnson)

                Two Step is unrated, was written and directed by Alex R. Johnson and stars James Landry Hebert, Beth Broderick and Skyy Moore. It will be limitedly released to theaters around April 2015, with a VOD release after that.