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, Natalie Zea, Dichen Lachman

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

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

out of sequence story line | missing woman | full frontal female nudity | breasts | bottomless | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Number 22: 1. The boxing match ends at 22 rounds. 2. Sampson says Janet has been too old for the dating scene since she was 22 years old. 3. Each of the five scenes are within a minute of 22 minutes long.

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Quotes

Samson: Three days ago, I stepped in some gum, and it started me asking questions. So I punched some people in their fat faces. I threatened various kneecaps with blunt objects. On several times I brandished my revolver. I spent the pathetic amount of mattress money I had on bribes and payoffs. I did these things because I wanted information. And I got my information. And I was certain this would all lead me to a body. But the only body I found was the one I started out with. A girl named Dorothy ...

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Connections

References Iron Man 3 (2013)

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Soundtracks

If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up
Music & Lyrics by Betty Mabry
Performed by Betty Davis
Published by Higher Music Publishing Inc. (ASCAP) o/b/o itself and Mabry Betty Music Co. (ASCAP)
Courtesy of HLLMS, LLC and Light In The Attic Records

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

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

April 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

Too Late

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,000, 20 March 2016

Gross USA:

$60,438

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$60,438

Company Credits

Production Co:

Foe Killer Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1