Usher (2004)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Roger Leatherwood

Writers:

Adam Aicher (writer)
Roger Leatherwood (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The job defines the man.

Plot:

A young hit man falls on hard times and gets a job as an usher in a movie theatre. He can't handle it.

Plot Keywords:

Usher | Candy Girl | Art | Theater | One Word Title

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Thomas Alexander	...	Ash
Quin Gordon	...	Alvin
Elizabeth Turkel	...	Novelyn
James Call	...	Jaime
Maya Ramirez	...	Waitress
Jason R. Houston	...	Usher Blake
Keith Anthony	...	Usher Gary
Roger Leatherwood	...	Mr. Roderick
Pavlos Psoinos	...	The Boss
Howie Levinson	...	Howie (Thug One)
Kasey Klemm	...	Mike (Thug Two)
Joshua Duldulao-Rodrigues	...	Kid One
Wesley Horne	...	Kid two
Matthew Boncado	...	Kid three
Dan Seneres	...	Customer with beer one

Runtime:

USA:91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Mill Valley, California, USA

Company:

Art Over Life Studios

Trivia:

The film was shot at the movie theatre where the director worked - late at night from midnight to 8:00 a.m. over the course of 12 weeks.

Quotes:

Ash: I'm sorry, but you're going to have to leave.

Movie Connections:

References Fade to Black (1980)

Soundtrack:

Vacuum

An interesting low budget companion piece to Taxi Driver

As Scorsese once did for the lonely profession of chauffering passengers around town in Taxi Driver, director Roger Leatherwood selects another unsung job for his main character, whose serious issues, like Travis Bickle's, may or may not explode outwardly toward society - a movie theater usher.

Leatherwood decides not to use a first-person narration to make it easier for audiences to identify the problems raging in his main character's psyche, as Scorsese did, electing instead to let his main actor, Thomas Alexander, do the heavy lifting of winning audience sympathy for this outsider. (To use the French term, Alexander's "Ash" would definitely fit into "a bande apart.")

The parallels to Scorsese's film are uncanny. Like Bickle, Ash comes from a violent background that we never get many clues to. Both characters are jaded and unsure of themselves when trying to connect to normal life. Both characters feel they need to offer their protection to a female counterpart.

That protection ends in an orgy of violence in both films. And both directors step in front of the camera to offer words of wisdom to the main characters. (Though Leatherwood's theater manager role is a great deal larger than Scorsese's taxi passenger.)

The film looks good, is well-shot, and is better when dealing with the everyday disconnection of Ash with the world around him, than in later passages when action is required and the jumpy editing is so ragged that it undercuts a lot of cohesive structure. To be fair, the ending of Taxi Driver is classic in its structure and anyone would have a hard time topping it, but USHER comes up short just when it needs to show its fangs. Bickle's violence exploded and he was the pursuer, unable to control himself any longer, marching through the apartments with his well-honed military skills making him a truly frightening psychopath. In contrast, Ash becomes the pursued, which doesn't fit his character, running around, being chased, setting traps, and generally using his hit-man knowledge to elude and bait his pursuers, never losing control. Perhaps Ash needed to blow off a little of his steam.

Scorsese's masterful, final ironic twist of Bickle becoming a media hero is missing here. Ash's fate is left up to the viewer to decide and quite literally, we wonder if he has learned anything, or if the process will repeat itself when Ash finds his next job at a Burger King, or a Ralphs, or as...a taxi driver perhaps?