{"id":16647,"date":"2020-05-27T17:23:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T21:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/?p=16647"},"modified":"2020-09-06T15:15:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-06T19:15:01","slug":"abducted-tribeca-film-festival-review-2020-greggwmorris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/abducted-tribeca-film-festival-review-2020-greggwmorris\/","title":{"rendered":"ABDUCTED"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Note: Review originally published May 27 was updated today.]
\n\u2013 10 Minute Short
\n\u2013 Thriller, Mystery
\n\u2013 TFF 2020 publicized as “a tongue-in-cheek Southern thriller” about a rookie cop (veteran thesp Jenna Kanell as Officer Jen) on a first date that goes “horribly wrong” \u2013 but it’s got this kinetic kick that boots this short into another dimension of the space-time continuum, well beyond a festival thriller, mystery.
\n[Hint: Rod Serling would give a “two-thumbs” up on this one if he was still kickin’.]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rookie Officer Jen (Jenna Kannell) and her date (played by Jesse C. Boyd). Photo by Alex Harris<\/p><\/div>\n

Setting the stage for the kinetic kick, ABDUCTED opens with a spicy encounter between two cops dispatched to the house of an elderly woman who did a 911 about a missing member of her family, her husband, the cops assume.<\/p>\n

“I’m not talking about that missin’ piece of shit, missy,” snarls the elderly woman, played in great style by Rebecca Koon, to Officer Jen; she dialed 911 because of Bullet, her missing dog of a few hours. And the woman continues a salty-tongue lashing of Jen and her partner Officer Dave, played smartly by Jay Devon Johnson, because they just don’t give her the grief-empathy-vibe she expects from them about her missing Bullet.<\/p>\n

After Dave and Jen do a tactical two-step retreat to their car, they engaged in cop-talk that gets around to Jen’s date to be that night with a new guy she met.<\/p>\n

Caveat Lector:<\/strong><\/em> Shorts like this one \u2013 I’m talking about the gems \u2013 rarely get the good wide distribution that feature-length film festival movies can get after the fests end, even if they aren’t gems. A bummer. And this reviewer is in the mood for writing a #YouGottaSeeThisMovie review but knows, alas, that potential reviewers are highly-not-likely-to-see the light of day of ABDUCTED. Bummer. All the the reviewer can say is readers keep your fingers crossed, and damn the COVID-19 Pandemic and on to the review where he taps danced around spoilers.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Segueing to the date that evening in what looks like a get-down, funky swank watering hole, with Jen looking svelte, and her dude-date, played with polish by veteran thesp Jesse C. Boyd, checking her out as she checks him out. There’s chemistry.<\/p>\n

And then Jen’s smartphone chimes with a call from an overly inquisitive mom! There’s a quick mom-daughter chat and a quick segue to the date-dude, there is more to him as he seems to be, with this line: “Why don’t we get out of here.” They do.<\/p>\n

And then …<\/p>\n

Check out the picture below to get a hint about the denouement.\u00a0 And here’s one more hint: Beam me up Scotty!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Check out Jen’s eyes! Photo by Alex Harris<\/p><\/div>\n

Wrap up: Five stars all the way: Directing, writing, cinematography, acting and, of course, a kick-ass ending<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DIRECTOR \u2013 Ben Joyner
\nSCREENWRITER \u2013 Josh Barkey
\nCINEMATOGRAPHER \u2013 Tucker MacDonald<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gregg W. Morris can be reached at gregghc@comcast.net or profgreggwmorris@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A five star, 10-minute short with a kinetic kick. If you see it, you’ll luv it. The only problem is that five-star shorts like this can be hard to find after they debut at film festivals \u2013 that’s a bummer for this action, thriller with a Rod Serling denouement.
Gregg W. Morris <\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1649,1652,1653,1647,1650,1362,1648,1651],"class_list":["post-16647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-ben-joyner","tag-jenna-kanell","tag-jesse-c-boyd","tag-jesse-c-boyd-the-date","tag-josh-barkey","tag-new-york-film-fests","tag-rebecca-koon-jens-mom","tag-tucker-macdonald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16647"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16690,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16647\/revisions\/16690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}