JUNKIE HEAVEN : Wednesday 27th July 2016

I was invited to view the 18 minute short film 'JUNKIE HEAVEN' some time ago by Writer Lee Kolinsky, and it is only now, and after a repeat viewing, that I finally put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to record my Review for you here. Released a year ago now by Steve Sage Productions and Directed by Steve Sage Goldberg and Written by the aforementioned Lee Kolinsky, this short film has been around the festival traps and has had some success on the awards circuit, picking up five wins and four other nominations so far. Part drama, part Sci-Fi, part horror but all drug addled heroin addicted damnation for the lead character Doyle Burkett (Joseph A. Halsey) who literally wakes up dead after a night of shooting up.

We learn early on that Doyle is an Iraq War veteran having served two tours of duty. He killed two guys in friendly fire and is no longer allowed to be around guns. He is suffering from PTSD and proclaims that 'stealing and scoring - it's an addiction, but it's mine'! He is prepared to do anything for his next fix, such is his condition having sunk to the depths of the food chain with no hope and nothing to live for. But, he finds solace in his drug of choice - heroin, which gives him a means of escape and numbs the pain of the here and now. He shoots up what proves to be a lethal dose of smack with a bloodied needle protruding from his arm. He wakes to find a man standing at the base of his bed - a well dressed well spoken man that might be the Angel of Mercy or the Grim Reaper - Alexander (Sal Rendino) - who states that he is here to make a deal and offer Doyle his 'only chance for peace in the afterlife', while Doyle looks down on the dead version of himself in his makeshift bed. Alexander can bring him back for just long enough to retrieve a mythical knife that may help turn the tide of an ancient war, and he is 'looking for someone with your set of skills'. But, the knife needs to be retrieved from some unsavoury underworld characters, led by one Tommy Combs (Chris Cardona), that might help make a difference to Doyle in the afterlife.

Having agreed to take up the offer as Doyle puts it 'you become my tour guide to Heaven, or I can turn into cosmic dust and go to Hell', we follow Doyle on his mission to secure the knife and return it to Alexander. Along the way we meet Doyle's equally spaced out girlfriend Faz (Nicole Vogt-Lowell) who warns Doyle of the bad-shit given to them the day before, not yet realising that her boyfriend is lying dead on the bed and it's too late for words of wisdom. We move quickly to a boxing gym where Tommy and his cronies are playing poker in a back room. A shoot out ensues at the hands of Doyle proving that he is still handy with a pistol despite not having handled a weapon seemingly since being discharged from military service.

With Tommy's henchmen dead, we move to a boxing ring bout with Doyle dressed in his fatigues going hand to hand with Tommy, who clearly has the strength to overpower him. At stake is the knife in question, which when downed Doyle grabs and getting to his feet thrusts the knife into Tommy's stomach, at which point his mortal body vaporises. Tommy returns to his digs with the knife and is greeted by an expectant Alexander, and after some toing and froing about life and death and the choices Doyle made, the knife is handed over in exchange for Doyle second chance at life.

If you get the chance to search out this low budget, independent short film then you would be wise to do so. The production values are solid, the story engaging, and the performances particularly from Joseph A. Halsey as Doyle first rate. The depiction of drug addiction here is grounded in a realism rarely seen in the glamorised versions we see from mainstream Hollywood pictures, and Halsey's performance is gritty, grim, desperate, convincing and worthy of the wins he has garnered from the role. The film will leave you asking questions as to whether this is all played out in Doyle's drug induced state of mind, or is it real. You'll have to see for yourself, but to invest eighteen minutes of your time for a convincing thrill ride of story telling, performances and gritty realism is well worth it.

  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-