A Bag of Hammers
A kid in need of adult guidance gets taken under the wings of two guys who stubbornly refuse to mature in this independent comedy. Alan (Jake Sandvig) and Ben (Jason Ritter) are two friends in their mid-twenties who've known each other since high school and still behave as if they're stuck in adolescence. They make a living by pretending to offer valet parking at funerals, stealing the cars and selling them to a fence (Todd Louiso) who runs a garage. While Alan's sister Mel (Rebecca Hall) encourages the two to find a more responsible occupation, they don't do much about it until Lynette (Carrie Preston) moves into the neighborhood. Lynette is a single mother whose livelihood seems no more stable than Alan and Ben's, and when she mysteriously disappears, it falls to them to look after her 12-year-old son Kelsey (Chandler Canterbury). While initially Alan and Ben seem more like destructive playmates than guardians and try to bring Kelsey into their car-theft scheme, in time it occurs to them to start acting a bit more like fit role models for their young companion. A Bag of Hammers was the first feature film from writer and director Brian Crano. more..
Director: Brian Crano
Starring: Jason Ritter, Jake Sandvig, Chandler Canterbury, Rebecca Hall,Carrie Preston
First-time feature helmer Brian Crano maneuvers some tricky tonal shifts with impressive ease in A Bag of Hammers, a droll, quirky comedy with a pleasant amount of heart.
It's a film that should be appallingly twee, but more often than not is actually scruffy and sweet, thanks to a nicely underplayed turn by Chandler Canterbury as the kid, Kelsey, and the chemistry between Jason Ritter and Jake Sandvig as hipster grifters Ben and Alan.
A few striking performances - Ritter, Preston, and Canterbury are especially great - smooth out what might have been a much bumpier ride.
A dicey blend that generates viewer goodwill but can't make its conflicting vibes gel, A Bag of Hammers will play best with the most soft-hearted viewers provided they don't mind rooting for unrepentant felons.
Any film tossing comic interludes among its closing credits has to be convinced of their hilarity and of the good will the movie has earned with viewers by then. Perhaps the film's naked traffic in sentiment up to that point made Mr. Crano so bold. Whatever; his confidence was unwarranted.
Outstanding Achievement in Casting - Low Budget Feature - Drama/Comedy
Casting Society of America (2012)
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