Change Your Image
mcook-6
Reviews
Bent (2004)
considering the budget....it's damn good
I've been following Jason's work for over 6 years, and I'll say that I'm biased because I'm a fan of Jason's work. He's come a LONG way and considering he's in Boston with limited access to professional acting talent and shooting this with virtually no budget on weekends BENT is a fine piece of work. When viewing this, if you are comparing it to any form of Hollywood production it will fall short.
Prepare yourself and say, what could I do with a bunch of friends, an idea, a higher end DV video camera and several months... could you do better? No. Jason has mastered this type of film-making and suffers only from a lack of a pool of richer screen plays and actor talent. His editing and camera work are ready for something great.
Jason Santo is also self taught, he doesn't benefit from UCLA or NEW YORK UNIVERSITY formal training. Factor all of these points in and BENT becomes a wonderful progression show of his self learning. Jason has the guts to produce no budget micro cinema taking massive risks and that should be commended. Sure BENT suffers from poor acting, but so what? It's entertaining nonetheless watching everyday people really TRY HARD to act and read scripts for their paper thin characters (which probably makes the acting worse).
If you haven't tried to produce anything beyond garbage home video's of junior running around with the dog in the backyard, give Jason some credit. Enjoying BENT is all about perspective. If you understood the creative and technical process that Jason went through (he does it all, produces, edits, writes, and even acts) then you will enjoy BENT. There are moments of REAL potential here.
Jason simply needs a professional crew, to exclusively shoot on either 16 or 35 or video 24fps, throw in a professionally written intriguing script with real trained actors and Jason could direct the big indy hit.
For anyone who produces and/or acts in amateur no budget microcinema films or if you watch it understanding it was shot for less than a tank of gas, BENT is a great series that will entertain. The stories are interesting...and production values high.