Mr. Weekend (2020) LA Soul Noir - Black Noir's Matter

"This shit made people into hippies."

Written, directed, and produced by McKenzie Woodward. Bravo!

With all the interest in Noir these days how the fuck do we not hear about this film? The three nimrods who reviewed it on IMDb haven't a clue. 

A reviewer by the name of digitalhat has twelve reviews total almost all the films are rated 1 or 2/10 except for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) which he gives a 7/10 he should change his name to digital- ass-hat. The other two reviewers Top_Dawg_Critic and ks-60500 both have incredulity that the makers of the film chose to make it in black and white. Give it a go and watch it for yourself  you may be pleasantly surprised also.

Excellent Cinematography by Evan Avtal who obviously knows WTF he's doing in the "Noir" department. Music by Kerry Baines, Vernell Daye, and George Kamar. 

Willie Wright as bookie Charlie Jenkins "Mr. Weekend"

Janelle Marie as whore / call girl Nora Fiddledown

The film stars Willie Wright (a nice surprise) as bookie Charlie Jenkins, Janelle Marie (unknown to me) as whore / call girl Nora Fiddledown, Trenton L. Culkin as pimp and wanna be actor Cole O'Donnell, Peter D. Michael as the "whale" bettor and gun dealer Hyman Steinberg. Spencer Tatum as the weed growing, daub smoking Blake Lumbuster, Jacob Tasher as Rentboy, E.R. Ruiz as a goon with one ear chewed partially off called Jake D Morrow, Lee Coc as Diego Cervan, Nick Thomas as Big Slim Fizz, and Mario Ponce as Hector Valdon (Scar). 

Peter D. Michael as Hyman Steinberg

Spencer Tatum as Blake Lumbuster

This film reminded me of some of the Exploitation Transitional Noir made between 1960 and 1969. The quality of those independent productions was all over the map and they were not polished. But hey, some beat the odds and were good enough. Mr. Weekend plays like these shoestring budget films with unknown actors that only needed to play two weeks in a grindhouse theater to make all their money back, and that's a good thing. There are no car chases and minimal special effects.

Mr. Weekend's got some funky daylight green screen effects that will remind you of the real noticeable Hollywood rear projection shots on restored films. I would have added an overall vignette blur to the whole frame except for Wright. It wouldn't have been noticed then, but maybe McKenzie wants us to notice. The crackle old film effect being a sort of a wink wink to the audience. The technique redeems itself later on in Mr. Weekend during the night driving sequence. It reminded me of a bit of the graphi novel-ish Goldie driving sequences in Sin City. This is how it should be done on the cheap. It's good enough, and the well written screenplay makes this both entertaining and hopefully inspirational to other Noir filmmakers.

Story

Somewhere in the City Of Angels. Room 21. The Lit Motel. A cheap "hot sheet" shithole. Charlie Jenkins. Ex B&E con. Ex-bookie. A baller. Worked for Big Slim Fizz in one of Horse Dick Jimmy's rackets. On the run with a cool 4.9 million in pure crystal LSD.

Charlie looking in the mirror at himself begins an introspective VO and we go into a flashback.

The LSD

Charlie was a fly bookie with style, with "Flava." We get his bookie story. He tells us that winners just cant wait to get ahold of him while the losers will stall and avoid him as long as they can. 

The title sequence

Hell, they'll even leave sunny Cal, change their name, and move to Alaska to welch on a 10K bet. We watch him throw a bunch of envelopes on a bed, open a safe, and toss a couple of stacks of Benjamins after them. He makes up individual payoffs, puts them in the inside pocket of his suit jacket, and heads out to make his rounds.  

What follows is a nice title sequence with our main man Charlie walking along a partially white tiled underpass it will remind you of the 2nd Street tunnel. It, the 3rd Street tunnel, and Angels Flight are all that's left of Classic LA Noir's "ground zero" slum Bunker Hill. If you know enough about Classic Noir, this sequence real or digitally created, will hook you right from the get go. Its accompanied by a cool Ethio Jazz piece that's both airy, sad, and haunting, called "Tezeta" by Mulatu Astatke.  

Charlie drives what look like a 1968 Chevy Impala SS convertible. He makes payoffs run by calling Pam, the IT woman who directs him along his route. 

Pam the IT woman

The payoff envelopes on the front seat

After the pay offs Charlie goes and makes his collections. Charlie first visits Blake Lumbuster, Charlie carries lock picks he lets himself in. He surprises Blake in the shower and tells him he owes 8K. Blake tells him he's got to move some shit around but he'll have it in a few days. Charlie tells Blake that Big Jim Fizz will let you slide but he won't let you slip. The vigorous is $850.

Blake doing a daub

Charlie has stash in a floor safe in one of Blake's closets, in fact he has another one in Mid City and another in Inglewood. 

Charlie checking the closet safe.

He tells Blake that he'll be back Sunday for the Vig. Charlie's next collection is Hyman Steinberg. Hyman a whale, he owes 6.5K on the Vig, The IT gal tells him that Hyman's credit card statement shows he bought two tickets to Thailand leaving on Monday. Forilla? Now Hyman's got a lot of flow but if he's thinking of dipping to Thailand...  

When Charlie gets there he asks Hyman WTF? Hyman tells him don't worry he's got a big deal going down and he's retiring. He'll square up the whole 65K bet on Sunday.

Charlie can't believe it so he pesters Hyman about how he is going to swing it. Tanks? Hyman takes him over to the upright piano.

Inside under the lid, he got 4.9 million worth of pure crystal LSD that he's going to flip. 

L.S.D

So Charlie tells him the exact amount and reminds him he'll be back for the cash tomorrow. Hyman tells him not to worry, tells Charlie it will be no sweat, he'll even throw in a nice bonus for him. Next, Charlie goes to report to the boss, Big Jim Fizz. 

Nick Thomas as Big Slim Fizz

Big Jim is, Charlie tells us, as "gay as cum on a mustache," Charlie tells us that Big Jim claims he got the taste for it in prison. Anyway, as always Charlie prepares himself for seeing a bunch of "weird shit." He's not disappointed. He passes Big Jim the collection money, tells him that Hyman is saying he's gonna pay off in full tomorrow. Big Jim tells Charlie that that's what he expects him to do. If he doesn't get every penny Hyman is not gonna be Charlie's problem he's going to be Horse Dick Jimmy's problem. 

Charlie done with the his rounds and goes to chillax.

Charlie rushes back to his crib to heat up some Chinese take out for his usual "date" with Nora. Nora is a call girl who lives with her "boyfriend''/pimp Cole, when she is not out turning tricks. 

Charlie is a regular customer, her "Mr. Weekend." Nora, got her start in the biz when, in order to save pretty boy, budding actor, Cole's face from a bouncer at a club who wanted to break it, offered to suck the dudes dick instead. It worked. And the bouncer surprisingly paid her. She obviously must have liked it, and Cole liked the dough she started bringing in, in between his far and few between acting gigs. Easy living. Fucked up, yes, but hey, it's Noirsville.

Charlies weekend routine is to cook Nora a fancy dinner watch and old movie on TV and have sex. Its the Girlfriend Experience. Nora plays the sweet girlfriend purrrfectly. Its the one period of time where, to the average viewer, it looks like Charlie is a normal dude, and it only costs him 5 G's every weekend. The way Charlie looks at it he's a crook and she's a crook and that makes them like family. 

Sunday evening. Charlie heads over to Hymans. He better have the "Scrilla," the "C.R.E.A.M.'' Outside the door, he starts to pick the lock on the door, his usual M.O. (I guess he's keeping up with his B&E skills), when he surprisingly finds the door uncharacteristically un-locked. 

Nice visual with reflection of Charlie picking Hymans door lock

Something's Wack. Charlie goes in quietly. Everything looks Jake until he spots a very conspicuous fingers and blood garnish on the white kitchen linoleum floor. 

Somethings fucked -up! Strange noises coming from the bathroom down a hall. Charlie scoots. He is out in the hall when he pauses. 

Out in the hall

He realizes the LSD is still in the piano. He goes back. Charlie sneaks over to the piano removes Hyman's tchotchkes from the lid and grabs the parcel of LSD crystals, and then darts out of sight when a door opens.

A goon in his underwear waving around a nickle-plated Deagle for punctuation, is walking down the hall excitedly explaining that he thinks he accidently toe-taged Hyman (he had a heart attack). He listens a moment, turns, and walks back into the bathroom.

Charlie quickly darts back to the piano. Closes the lid, and puts back the bric-à-brac back on top. He grabs an Igloo cooler from atop the fridge and puts the package of crystals in it. A good, disguised, and inconspicuous way to carry it. Charlie jets.

Back in the Impala, he calls Pam and asks her to check up on the going price of 6.7 pounds of crystal LSD. She looks it up and is speechless. Its 6.7M. 

Charlie next does two things that set up a free fall into Noirsville. One, he wants to know if the LSD is legit, so he takes just one crystal to Blake to sort of "test drive" it, and Two, he tells Nora that they can quit the rackets and run away together if they can just come up with the 65K to square Hyman's bet with Big Jim Fizz. 

Pure LSD Crystal

Guinea Pig Blake 

Telling Nora

Charlie has a total 20K chip stash in all his safes, and Nora tells him that she can easily swing the rest, she'll just tell Cole some bullshit story about one of her girlfriends needing money for her kids operation. Charlie tells her to get the money to him, he'll bring the payoff to Big Jim Fizz while she can pack and get grab her passport. Then he'll meet her at the Lit Motel on Sweetzer Ave.

Noirsville

E.R. Ruiz as Jake D Morrow

Blake's LSD hallucination of Charlie is in color

Lee Coc as Diego Cervan

Director McKenzie Woodward as Tom Quivertinkle

Mario Ponce as Hector Valdon (Scar) 

Trenton L. Culkin Cole O'Donnell

Again Mr. Weekend is a nice surprise. Especially when you are not expecting much, its a thrill to see a contemporary Neo Noir film get it all so right. It can be done. Its a shame that with all the obvious interest in Film Noir these days this film didn't get much buzz. 

It's also somewhat understandable too, with the pseudo promotion of all kinds of films out there claiming to be Film Noir. But its also due to a basic misunderstanding of what Noir is. 

For Instance, there's a Facebook page called The Femme Fatales of Neo Noir that illustrates this fact nicely. Its got 111.0K members most of which just post glam and cheesecake publicity pics of their favorite hotties du jour (you would a think it should be just screen caps of their Noir films). Noir has a subjective element but without a good grounding in Noir, somehow, in some minds, Action, Superhero, and Crime films are automatically analogous to Films Noir. Now I admit I haven't seen all of the films, nobody has, but from those that I have seen, I question the Noir creds of a lot of these women, maybe 10% are bonafide Noir Femme Fatales and another 20% are Noir Femmes. 

Noirsville's simplest definition of Noir is three fold. Noir is a simple dark pan generic story told in a visually stylistic manner that subjectively for you has enough of those elements to tip a film Noir for you the individual. Also always keep in mind the original coinage of Films Noir in France. French right-wing and religious publications condemned any films that they deemed went against the laws of the state or were stories about unrepentant individuals of low morals as "Films Noir."

If you think about it, the two extreme poles of that broad original coinage definition regardless of quality would be snuff films and porno. 

There has been 62 years of world Cinema, TV films, and Mini Series since the now commonly acknowledged end of Classic Hollywood Studio Film Noir in 1959. Film Noir wasn't really even on the radar screens of average cineasts until the 1980s. There is a lot of content out there, world over, never mind in just the U.S., that should be evaluated to see if they fit the Noir universe. 

Again Bravo to McKenzie Woodward, Evan Avtal, and the cast and crew that made this film happen. For a debut effort fantastic 7-7.5/10, hoping for more to come. Black Noirs Matter, Baby! Streaming currently Free on Amazon Prime.

The Music, besides the before mentioned "Tezeta" includes, "Didn't I," by Darondo, "Opium Dreams" by George Kamar, "Beyond The Lights," "Used To Me," "Corner Store," "Rattle Of Concerns, by Vernell Rainy, "About It," by Vitakari, "House Of Film," "I Liked That," by Boom Ellington, "Rails Up," "Eastside In Me" by E.R. Ruiz, "Prison" "Indian Kush," by Lee Coc & Milton Bradley, "Breathless," "Out In The Night," "Happy Days" by Rubaiyat, and "Relation" by Sinderella. 

The Film Noir Foundation's Noir City Film Festivals should add this as an epilogue to their Classic lineup along with one or two other Neo Noirs of note, as a way to extend and broaden Film Noir appreciation to the present.