April saw the release of Todd Bartoo’s first full feature, a film he wrote and directed, about a dark criminal underworld and the brutal betrayal of a conflicted female Anti-heroine. Killing Joan is a gritty, urban, supernatural action flick with lots going for it, but does it truly deliver that killer punch?
Joan Butler (Jamie Bernadette) is a hard-hitting, heavy drinking, leather-clad leader of a small gang of organized criminals. She works for a rather dubious and shady character called Frank (David Carey Foster), who relies on her to get his grunt work done. Joan is bad-tempered, impulsive and aggressive – everything Frank had brought her up to be. However, when she is asked to put the pain on her ex-boyfriend (Teo Celigo), her loyalties are divided. The innocent and kind-hearted Anthony is a Social Worker that helps the homeless and disconnected youth in his local area, and Joan still has a soft spot for him. Torn by her feelings, she just can’t follow through with the mission. Consequently, Frank sends Joan’s own gang to remind her just who is in charge. The motley crew of thugs confront her in a dark and lonely alley and beat her to death. This, however, is where the real story begins.
In a plot twist that is reminiscent of Alex Proyas’s 1994 film The Crow, Joan is given the opportunity to get her revenge against those that took her life. She is reborn in the darkness as an ethereal being with strange new powers that she must master in order to take her bloody vengeance. The new, undead Joan immediately bursts into action amongst a cloak of shadows and Cthulhu like tentacles and starts to kick some bad-guy ass.
Killing Joan tries to build a compassionate connection between the viewer and Joan, and a lot of time is spent in long emotional conversations and heart to hearts. However, this all seems very far removed from the hard-nosed mobster that Joan is at the start of the movie. What is clear though is that Joan is a complete emotional mess. For me, this was all inconsequential because what makes this film is the action. And there is a lot of it. The intricacies of who did this and who did that, seem unimportant compared to the revenge-driven dust-ups.
Jamie Bernadette is the strong female lead character and she plays it well. She’s volatile, angry, emotional, sexy and ready for action. This role could have been written for her and Bartoo is spot-on to have chosen this rising-star to take on the title character. Bernadette’s obvious talent has seen her become a very busy lady with numerous projects in the pipeline, including a lead role in the upcoming Darrell Roodt movie ‘The Furnace’. With more upcoming credits than I can count, Bernadette is forging a real name for herself within contemporary cinema.
[Related: Jamie Bernadette talks Killing Joan and 4/20 Massacre – SFM Exclusive Interview]
The supporting cast includes David Cary Foster who is brilliant as the mob boss Frank. He has a certain reserved but dark composure that would rival Clive Barker’s Hell Priest ‘Pinhead’, he simply oozes stylish experience. Casper Andreas and Danny Gardner also pull off notable performances that help to really elevate this movie. And the ending scenes leave plenty of scope for a sequel which personally, I would find even more intriguing than this first installment.
If you’re in the mood for an 80’s style, Crow-esque, strong female-led ass-kicking movie, then Killing Joan is the way to go. For first-timer Todd Bartoo, this is a great looking, slick launch-pad for a promising career, and for Jamie Bernadette yet another lead role on her way to bigger and better things.
Discover Killing Joan for yourself now at places like Amazon, Vudu and iTunes.
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