Lowlife (2017)

The sordid lives of an addict, an ex-con, and a luchador collide when an organ harvesting caper goes very, very wrong.

Director:

Ryan Prows

Writers:

Tim Cairo, Jake Gibson

Stars:

Nicki Micheaux, Ricardo Adam Zarate, Jon Oswald

2 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Nicki Micheaux	...	Crystal
Ricardo Adam Zarate	...	El Monstruo
Jon Oswald	...	Randy
Shaye Ogbonna	...	Keith
Santana Dempsey	...	Kaylee
Mark Burnham	...	Teddy 'Bear' Haynes
Jose Rosete	...	Agent Fowler
Jearnest Corchado	...	Gabriella
Clayton Cardenas	...	Wayne Hernandez
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Olivia Benavides	...	Rosa Maria
Rich Cassone	...	Patron in Bedazzled Jeans
Brett Easton	...	ICE Agent
Josh Fried	...	ICE Agent
Kelli Jordan	...	Nessa
Ari Loeb	...	ICE Agent

Storyline

Tarantino-esque gruesome yet darkly comedic crime thriller drama set in a poverty and crime ridden L.A. neighborhood. Split in three intermingling segments titled "Monsters," "Fiends," and "Thugs", the story follows several desperate seedy characters who all have ties to Teddy, a local mass murdering crime boss and white slaver who kidnaps and murders illegal immigrants for their organs or enslaves them for his prostitution/rape ring. El Monstruo is a failed luchador who never breaks character, suffers from violent blackouts and works as Teddy's top henchman while trying to ignore the various horrifying aspects of the job. He's expecting a baby with Kaylee, a woman given as child to Teddy by her mother Crystal, and hopes that his child will fill the shoes of El Monstruo's legendary and heroic luchador father, something that El Monstruo failed to do and is ridden with guild over it. Keith is Teddy's accountant whose committed a crime in his younger days but never served time since his ...

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Plot Keywords:

nonlinear timeline | luchador | violence | swastika | long take | 

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Taglines:

Blessed Are The Meek

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

6 April 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

Жизнь подонков

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lowlife's World Premiere was set in Montreal, on June 21st 2017, at Fantasia Festival.

User Reviews

Loved it

Brutal, visceral, well acted, funny, poignant ... what's not to like.

I understand that this film is Marmite, you either love it or you hate it.

I thought of Machete while watching it, but I like this more. This is a graphic novel compared with Machete's cartooning.

I was surprised by a lot of things here. The quality of the acting, details of the characterisation, unexpected story arcs. Unexpected humour! There was some great situational comedy. The sheer WTF at times made me laugh out loud.

I think you'll know pretty quickly whether you're going to like this. If you're undecided, please wait until you see the scene at Crystal's motel from Keith and Randy's POV. If it hasn't grabbed you by then, it won't.

If you can see it, there's a great film here.

PS I gave it 8 stars, which it might not quite be worth, but it's definitely worth more than the 6.4 it's got as I write this review. F'in Blade Cash-in 2049 has 8.1 and this has twice the heart.