Review: WRONG REASONS (2023)
It’s a hard line between something making thematic sense and something being more enjoyable for the audience. In WRONG REASONS, writer/director Josh Roush splits the film into two distinct (but related) storylines in order to illustrate the inverse relationship between the two. It’s a clever idea that works on a cognitive level but unfortunately one plot is more interesting than the other. This imbalance ends up skewing the film, which is otherwise an enjoyable indie punk rock movie that pleasantly feels like a throwback to the darker dramedies of the late ‘90s (BUFFALO ‘66, CLAY PIGEONS, etc.).
Kat Oden (Liv Roush) is a punk rock darling whose career has started a downward slope, mostly since she got into relationships with a vapid musician and heroin. One night as the couple slumbers from their recent doses, Kat is abducted by a masked man (James Parks) with unclear motives. While Kat reacts to being held captive by this mysterious man, Detective Dobson (Ralph Garman) is on the case of her disappearance—a case that is pretty big international news. Dobson looks to solve Kat’s abduction, though mostly for what he can get out of it from a Cable TV news anchor (Teresa Ruiz) and her channel.
Writer/director Josh Roush explores a pretty old question that has kind of become even more pertinent in these muddled times: how much does intent matter compared to the acts themselves? If the motive is bad but the result is good, then does the end justify the means? It’s a murky area and an answer that WRONG REASONS never lands on (purposefully), instead using the characters of the captor and the detective as reflections of each other. The kidnapper, James, is committing a horrible crime with noble intent while the detective is seeking justice but for all the wrong reasons (Eh? Eh?). It’s a clever dichotomy with a strong set up, but unfortunately the stuff with Kat and James is much more compelling than the immoral wannabe star detective leading to wishing more time was spent with the original duo.
But this isn’t to say that the whole film is bad because of this imbalance. The sequences with Kat and James is very strong thanks to some stellar performances from Roush and Parks. They manage to project a mixture of sweetness and frailty wrapped up in some inner demons that creates complex, sympathetic, and compelling characters. Their dialogue tends to be blunt but is always sold as honest and natural by the actors.
However, even the scenes apart from the magnetic duo, the other cast members have moments to shine. His storyline may not be the most engaging, but Garman does a great job as Dobson, being the smarmy never-was actor turned police officer who is wading through his days completely disengaged with his job. Ruiz also nails the role of NIN anchor Julie Martin, eschewing the heartless bitch/cold opportunistic bitch portrayal in favor of someone just doing a job without any false pretenses about who she is or what she does. Kevin Smith pops up as her cameraman and offers a healthy dose of comedy as the two have strong comedic energy between them, with Smith being the goofy stoner to Ruiz’s much more focused professional. It’s a fun pairing very reminiscent of the dynamic between Courtney Cox and W. Earl Brown in SCREAM.
WRONG REASONS has a bunch of fun smaller roles populated by good character actors. Daniel Roebuck is the police captain and proves that he absolutely kills every job, whether it’s in this punk rock indie or something by Robert Zombie. David Koechner uses his slime effectively well as James’ shitheel brother, but even he is given a scene to show some more depth than such a character would typically have. WRONG REASONS has a lot of these little scenes that reveal more humanity and profundity to these otherwise stock types than most would assume. And those moments are seized upon by the cast and used to their utmost.
The soundtrack is a terrific dose of punk rock and a guitar-centric score, which is definitely a welcomed respite from the usual plinking-plonking of acoustic guitars or pianos that accompany most indie films these days. Cameron Mosavian does a good job taking the punk rock sound inherent in the relationship between Kat and James and infusing it with a softness, but never erring on the side of corny or treacly.
The cinematography is fine if uninspired—people think it’s ridiculous to talk about things being framed correctly, but that just means they haven’t seen enough independent/DIY movies to know how common it is to have heads randomly cut off or the action not centered properly. WRONG REASONS doesn’t have much in the way of visual flourish, but the pedestrian sense of camerawork never distracts from the more compelling story and characters.
One thing the cinematography does feature is one of my biggest pet peeves with independent film, usually found far more often in indie genre works like horror: the overhead drone shot of a car driving down the road. It evokes the similar helicopter shots of THE SHINING and the like, but all it reads is that the filmmakers had access to a drone for a day or so. This isn’t a detriment to WRONG REASONS, and honestly most people wouldn’t even notice this trend, but I am personally begging people to stop doing this. Use a rig or a mount, or even just another car—that’s actually more impressive than a drone! Again, it’s a minor personal thing…but it grinds my gears something fierce!
With its bisected storylines, it was almost a guarantee that WRONG REASONS would be a bit lopsided. Focusing an equal amount on both parts of this plot ends up depriving viewers of more of the excellent content found between Roush and Parks. Luckily the rest of the movie has enough heart, humor, and humanity with impressive character beats to help assuage this imbalance. WRONG REASONS is very much like the punk rock music it so admires: full of honest emotion if a rather messy.
WRONG REASONS is currently touring the states on a theater by theater basis. To find when it’s coming to a theater near you, visit www.FindKatOden.com.