EIFF 2010: Chase The Slut review

It’s 9am, I’ve just arrived in Edinburgh, and it’s definitely too early in the morning for a film all about sex, sex and more sex. So, it’s good that Chase The Slut doesn’t do just that, but, in fact, gives the viewer an interesting if flawed film.

The film introduces Chase and her friend Tibb as the kind of girls who go out and look for men to sleep with night after night. An entirely fruitful yet ultimately unfulfilling venture it emerges. Chase has just returned to her hometown after a four year run at college to find that nothing has changed. She is still known as ‘the slut’ and is often called so by her only friend, leaving us in no doubt of the truth the word holds for Chase.

It appears that the way she had seemed to people after having a one-night stand seemed to quickly stick, and Chase began to play into it. She became the so-called “slut” that many had branded her as.

Tibb seems like the easily bored type, and starts daring Chase into as many degrading acts as possible, including licking her bar stool and telling the man sitting next to her that it tastes like her ass. Definitely not the most endearing of qualities, but when Chase is dared to ‘ruin’ a devout Christian teenager, it takes her down a path that is far from where she saw herself going.

It’s truly at this point where the film lights up, having been mainly stuck in a rut beforehand. When she meets the boy, Gabe, and his three friends, it’s truly like a light is switched on and the writers run away with brilliant yet honed ideas about the characters.

Each character is introduced in an interesting way, giving each one a scene to themselves, which show us things we may have not known from just the events in the film. Each one shows the characters at the furthest away point from where they are now, so most are fairly surprising. However, far and above the best of these is for ‘The Smart Guy’ Amos, whose introduction gets the biggest laugh out loud moment of the entire film.

And from there the laughs keep coming. Increasingly odd scenarios build up until the film turns itself back to the emotionally-led storyline from before. Both are good and the style of humour mixes well with the amateur dramatics on display here.

The acting is, of course, a little bit amateurish, but given the size of the film and its acting talent, it’s not surprising. However, the quality of the performances improves with every scene, as if these actors are still honing their talents. It definitely shows a good wealth of skill for the level they are at.

The film has a good feel to it, and the more comedic elements pour their early Kevin Smith-lite selves throughout it. It’s never a bad thing to remind me of Clerks, so the scenes where especially funny things happen with the van bring a welcome tone.

However, not everything about the film is commendable. For one, some plotlines seem introduced only to get a certain reaction, either from the viewer or from characters in the film, but are never touched upon again, which creates a divide between the good works of the plot.

Another qualm, no matter how small, was that of the sound design. It’s unfortunate to see good scenes ruined by sound levels in one scene not matching that of the next, either getting louder than anticipated or quieter than necessary. It’s especially unbecoming of the filmmaker to do this when he has obviously spent time getting an interesting and fitting score put together by David Manning.

The plot too, while giving a good amount of ingenuity to a recycled story, feels that little bit uninspired, especially toward the ending.

However, when it comes to the big blowout scene of the film, it turns out to be a really good effort by everyone involved, but still, the last few moments following it kind of whimper to a close.

It’s unfortunate, too, because up until then I was really enjoying it, and had planned to give it a slightly better rating than it is going to receive. Still, for its flaws, it does have good things going for it.

It’s a funny, odd and endearing story that convinces the viewer of the change these characters go through, all within the confines of a limited budget and amateur actors. It’s an impressive effort and is at least worth considering seeing.