Actor Christopher Lloyd and Canadian director April Mullen are shown in a handout photo from the new film "88."The Canadian Press
Bullets spray and bodies tumble in this low-budget feature from Canadian director April Mullen (Dead before Dawn 3D).
In her second film, Mullen jumps into the post-Tarantino/Lynch neo-noir grindhouse style with a female-centred story shot around Niagara Falls, Ont.
Katherine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps) stars as a young woman, named either Gwen or Flamingo, who finds herself with no memory, sitting in a roadside diner, holding a knapsack containing gumballs and a loaded gun. Along with Isabelle in the split-personality role as good girl Gwen and stone-eyed vamp Flamingo, Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) chews it up as the malevolent racketeer, Cyrus, with Mullen's writing-producing partner, Tim Doiron, as a motor-mouthed killer sidekick.
The busy loop-the-loop plot and parade of goofy lowlifes preclude any real emotional investment in the material, but 88, which is being released theatrically in Canada and direct to video-on-demand in the U.S., serves as a lively calling card for the filmmakers.
Liam Lacey