THE PROCESSION

(2007)

directed by Tom Rittenhouse

written by Michael Palma & Tom Rittenhouse

 

reviewed by Adam Armstrong

1.8.09

 

 

O…kay.

 

Nick (Michael Palma) and Hayden (Tom Rittenhouse) learned that a high school friend has died and both plan to attend the funeral. When Hayden’s taxi gets a flat he suggests that he and Nick go to the funeral together. Shortly afterword Nick’s car suffers the same fate. Hitchhiking, the two encounter an old high school bully, Trent “The Trigger” (John Chatham), who drags them into stealing an ex-girlfriend’s pair of underwear. After Hayden makes fun of Trent’s poetry, that he found in the back of the jeep, the two are once again hitchhiking only to be picked up by someone stranger. The stranger (Andrew Treglia) attempts to get them to help him rob a gas station when Hayden accidentally shoots the man in the butt.

 

This short film was meant as a comedy but it really didn’t strike me as all that funny. While Palma pulls off a great job portraying a disenchanted young man who’s afraid of change, the rest of the cast is barely believable. The movie is kind of like a dark Napoleon Dynamite, in other words there isn’t really any jokes just odd behavior. The lighting bothered me quite a bit as well. The whole thing just seemed too bright for the dark theme of a procession.

 

2 out of 5