Sustain Review

Sustain is a 2019 crime thriller feature film directed by Dave Hastings.

The pieces are all laid out in the film Sustain but ultimately, they don’t all quite connect. While the acting, directing, and story all are fine there are just small technical limitations that keep this film from reaching to a deeper level.

The two components that stand tall for me in this film are the acting and the score. Everyone in the production commits to their roles. I especially enjoyed the performances from Richard Buck as Kev McKenzie, Brett Dewsbury as Kieran Flank, and Joshua Sewell as Toby Flank. The score composed by Hans Michael Anselmo Hess was also great, delivering the right moments of emotional punch, while holding back when needed. It reminded me of a classic Hans Zimmer score you’d hear for a Christopher Nolan picture.

Little moments of sound hiccups, lighting that times was just too direct and harsh, on top of some strange story beats all kept me from enjoying the film more. There were a lot of moments of exposition to sort of fill in characters with their motivations for being involved and the film at times just felt a bit too hand-holdy to the audience.

I can admire the energy and effort that went into the production. There were a great number of locations utilized and the story while a bit formulaic was still handled with a good touch. I think everything would just be elevated with a little more budgeting which I understand is not a luxury many of us filmmakers can afford.

I am not trying to knock the film here at all, just acknowledging some of the things I noticed in my viewing. I think Hastings has a solid team here that is pushing to create something on the same level as many bigger budget films which is completely commendable. It is just the little things that add up to hold it back from greatness.

I still think if you enjoy crime drama films or vengeance movies this is one worth checking out. I can appreciate all the hard work and energy that went into a film that obviously had a lot of love surrounding it.

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You can purchase the film on Vimeo or Amazon Prime.

Cheers!

Daniel Hess

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