Too Late (2015)

Explores the tangled relationship between a troubled private investigator and the missing woman he's hired to help find.

Director:

Dennis Hauck

Writer:

Dennis Hauck

Stars:

Crystal Reed, Dichen Lachman, Natalie Zea

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Crystal Reed	...	Dorothy Mahler
Dichen Lachman	...	Jill
Natalie Zea	...	Mary Mahler
Dash Mihok	...	Jesse
Joanna Cassidy	...	Eleanor Mahler
John Hawkes	...	Samson
Jeff Fahey	...	Roger
Robert Forster	...	Gordy Lyons
Helen Sadler	...	Actress
Sydney Tamiia Poitier	...	Veronica
Rider Strong	...	Matthew
Vail Bloom	...	Janet Lyons
Vanessa Sheri	...	Bikini Girl
David Yow	...	Arthur
Aly Trasher	...	Giddyup Girl

Storyline

Explores the tangled relationship between a troubled private investigator and the missing woman he's hired to help find.

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Plot Keywords:

missing woman | full frontal female nudity | breasts | bottomless | murder | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

April 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cлишком поздно

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,000, 20 March 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$60,438, 19 May 2016

Company Credits

Production Co:

Foe Killer Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shot on 35mm film. Will be screened in theatres in the same format.

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Connections

References The Wire (2002)

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Soundtracks

Nobody's Baby Now
Written by Nick Cave (as Nicholas Edward Cave)
Performed by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Published by Embassy Music Corp (BMI) o/b/o Mute Songs
Courtesy of Mute Records Ltd
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Neo-Noir, Neo-Bogey, Nice.

"I didn't know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting!" Marie Windsor

I have a neo-noir you can't refuse: Too Late. For a title vibrating with despair like that of The Big Sleep, In a Lonely Place, The Long Goodbye, and A Touch of Evil, Too Late reeks of a dark, desperate, disorienting world where a soulful and soulless private detective named Mel Sampson (John Hawkes) searches for meaning among L.A.'s damned passengers. Many of those souls are dames, femme fatals if you will, beautiful in a cheap way but deeper emotionally than you'd expect and fraught with danger for anyone who cares about them.

Shot in 35 mm Techniscope or 2-perf with five 20-minute uncut chapters, Too Late is bound to be a classic take on the detective genre memorable for such hard-boiled shamuses as Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. References to directors like Alan Rudolph and Robert Altman, not to mention Quentin Tarantino, certify first-time feature writer and director Dennis Hauck's goal to participate in the pleasantly depressive genre.

Tired detective Sampson searches for a pretty young stripper, Dorothy (Crystal Reed). and eventually her murderer, now and then showing his long hair and strength but just as vulnerable as his biblical name suggests. As for her, well, dare I speculate she was searching for some rainbow's end? She was witty and vulnerable, "lost" in Elysian Park's Radio Hill of Los Angeles while encountering two drug-dealing thugs (Dash Mihok, Rider Strong) and a garrulous park ranger (Brett Jacobsen), all of whom could have as easily played in Pulp Fiction given their penchant for witty talk laced with cinematic references.

Just as memorable and just as noir-naughty are Robert Forster's wealthy strip-club owner, Gordy Lyons; his dangerously desperate wife, Janet (Vail Bloom); and Dorothy's former stripper grandmother, played by Joanna Cassidy, who appeared in the cult classic Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, referenced here no doubt to geeks' glee.

Although I've not mentioned much plot in this review, you get the idea that various fringey L. A. lost-soul types are the interest in this noir homage, at least to my nostalgic, crime-porned, cinema-drenched sensibility.

"One difference between film noir and more straightforward crime pictures is that noir is more open to human flaws and likes to embed them in twisty plot lines." Roger Ebert