12 Hour Shift

Writer/director Brea Grant tries to accomplish a lot with 12 Hour Shift. It's both a heist film and a pitch-black comedy of errors, as well as a surrealist exploration of opioid addiction with just a hint of existentialism. It's also a story that takes place in a single night and mostly in a single location. Some viewers may say that’s way too many boxes for one film to check — and those folks aren’t entirely wrong. 

Angela Bettis (Girl, Interrupted) stars as Mandy, a junkie nurse whose otherwise typical night is thrown into chaos when her ditzy cousin by marriage, Regina (Chloe Farnworth), loses a stolen kidney meant for a group of criminals with no time to spare. Regina's search for a replacement leads her back to Mandy, who's busy trying to hide numerous secrets from her employers while caring for a variety of patients (including a convict played by David Arquette). The pair don't get along, but with an angry crime lord impatiently waiting for the missing organ and a curious cop on their trail, they must work together to survive the night.

Grant's script begins in a relatable world that grows increasingly strange as the story unfolds. Each new twist complicates matters, but Mandy’s and Regina's mounting problems are not the only weird things that occur. At one point, two supporting cast members in different locations, doing different things begin singing the exact same worship song directly to the camera. Later, two men with guns argue over semantics in the middle of a shootout.

Bettis is the anchor that keeps the film more or less on the rails. Though her vision sometimes blurs and her head always hurts, Mandy still maintains a firm grip on reality. Her guiding principle is that everyone looks out for themselves, including her, and that each decision leads to as many questions as it does answers. The surreal events happening around her cannot deter her efforts to make it through the night, and so we too are thrust ever-forward, moving quickly through uncertainty and confusion.

It's hard to tell whether the cast's lifeless acting or Grant's direction is what creates friction between the tension and humor of 12 Hour Shift. I don't even know if it's intentional. The film's first act is a straightforward narrative that unravels into something that, at times, reaches the kind of hilarious discomfort that only films such as The Room or Birdemic can successfully create. Certain scenes are stiff like concrete, and it sucks the tension out like a vacuum, leaving only absurdity behind. It’s gonzo filmmaking, seemingly unaware of how awkward it plays, which is why it works to some degree — but only a slim margin of viewers will appreciate it. Everyone else will think they've witnessed an amateur attempt at something that would be a taut thriller in other hands with another filmmaker.

Grade: B-minus. Not rated. Available to rent starting Oct. 2 via Amazon Video, iTunes, and other streaming services

(Photo: Magnet Releasing)