Retake *** (2016, Tuc Watkins, Devon Graye, Derek Phillips, Sydelle Noel) – Classic Movie Review 12,420

A businessman pays a street hustler a large sum to go on a road trip to the Grand Canyon and pretend to be someone named Brandon. Tuc Watkins and Devon Graye share strong screen chemistry in the entertaining and involving 2016 film Retake.

Tuc Watkins stars as a handsome, lonely middle-aged businessman called Jonathan, who pays a flirty young male San Francisco street hustler called Adam (Devon Graye) a large sum to be his companion on a road trip to the Grand Canyon and to role play to pretend to be someone named Brandon for the full ride.

Nick Corporon’s entertaining and involving 2016 first feature film Retake successfully mixes suspense and romance, with on the one hand its hints of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (suspense) and on the other of Pretty Woman (romance). So the darkly playful game of obsession and manipulation is on. Adam is required to use a modicum of a cologne, abandon his own clothes for Brandon’s, and decides to cut his on dark long hair short, just like in a photo of Brandon. It is nice and eerie stuff, well delivered.

Its initially troubling scenario is unsettling and disturbing, and then it turns out to develop into a positive journey of self-discovery, and a lesson in the virtue of reclaiming the past and moving on. The film stays unsettling throughout, as you try to second-guess where it is headed – and will most likely fail. OK [spoiler alert] we do get to the Grand Canyon, as promised and expected, but everything else stays unexpected. It is indeed a tale of the unexpected.

Tuc Watkins and Devon Graye are ideally cast, inhabiting their characters beautifully, and both actors give tremendous performances of men confident outwardly but troubled in mind (though that’s going to change). They are kind of difficult characters to play but Watkins and Graye make you believe in them. It is important that they share strong screen chemistry, and they do. They are kind of made for each other, and not, at the same time. The question is, if Adam stops being Brandon, will Jonathan still have any time for him? Love him even?

This attractively offbeat film is sensitively written and expertly handled by Nick Corporon. It does take risks but it’s a success.

Derek Phillips and Sydelle Noel play as couple of nice folks the guys meet along the way,

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,420

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