BREAK Racks Up a Big Win
by Dr. Laura Wilhelm, LauraWil Intercultural
The touching underdog film set in Detroit, Michigan stars Darren Weiss, Victor Rasuk, Jeff Kober, Caleb Emery, and Patricia Belcher.
The moody sepia-tinted tones punctuated by soft lights actually remind one more of classic crime films such as Francis Ford Coppola’s GODFATHER trilogy. This is revealed to be prophetic.
Human dramas literally play out on the pool tables of BREAK. A young waiter named Eli (Weiss) turns out to have some serious game and gets invited to play at a private club called the Billiard Brotherhood held at a pool hall called the Loving Touch.
Soon Eli is kissing the boss’s daughter over sub sandwiches. Filet mignon then follows, underscoring the couple’s class differences that threaten to break them apart.
Halfway through the film in an artfully lighted alleyway, Eli is warned off of his new passion by someone claiming to have known his father (Kober). This stranger becomes Eli’s chief antagonist in several games of pool that seem almost mythical.
BREAK‘s stirring soundtrack at times sounds overwrought, but highlights the exciting tensions found in one of America’s most popular pastimes Most of the shots are filmed up close and a few high-speed sequences add to the fun.
Naturally, the final game at the end of BREAK puts everything that came before on the line and challenges the hero to set everything right with his dazzling skills. We will leave it up to filmgoers to find out if and how this is done.
To sum up, BREAK looks very good and flows by very fast. Weiss’s expressive face and ultra fit body charm the viewer throughout, and BREAK is full of some truly beautiful people.
The game of life is full of light and dark. You gotta know how to play the game, or the game is gonna play you.
Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za4I0BLIDZk
Dr. Laura Wilhelm holds a B.A. in Russian and Classics from Reed College and a Ph.D. in Russian language, literature, and linguistics from the University of Kansas. Born in Philadelphia, Laura has lived in Los Angeles since 1994 and covered the exciting local and international entertainment scene in publications such as Cold Heat News, FVM Global, Hollywood Weekly, The Hollywood Times, Indie Entertainment Magazine, and Magic Image Hollywood Magazine. Dr. Wilhelm runs an award-winning consulting company called LauraWil Intercultural; teaches courses on professional writing and public speaking; and serves as a board member, judge, and media partner for the French Riviera Film Festival.