San Francisco the star in atmospheric noir
San Francisco is one of the most important characters in “The Filmmaker,” a mystery drama that shows the city from some interesting angles: above the Stockton Tunnel, near the Golden Gate Bridge and from a high-rise hotel.
The movie also pays homage to the city’s noir tradition, featuring a woman with questionable motives, a plot to exact revenge and an ambivalent main character who gets caught up in it all.
The story opens as Kevin (writer-director JP Allen), a filmmaker and photographer, gets an anonymous phone call from a woman. His identity has been stolen. When he returns home, he also finds that his belongings have been ransacked. Eventually, Kevin meets up with this identity thief, the mysterious Michelle (Ashley Rain Turner), who keeps her distance even as she seems dependent on Kevin.
This relationship is at the center of “The Filmmaker,” and Allen and Turner turn in workable performances. But the screenplay doesn’t give us any sense of Kevin before the fateful phone call, so his every action afterward comes off as a script contrivance. Why doesn’t he just immediately call the police? Why does he approach this woman? Why does he agree to get involved in a violent plot?
The movie nibbles at these questions, but the answers are not terribly exciting, or convincing. As noir, “The Filmmaker” doesn’t mesmerize, but San Francisco and the Bay Area locations (plus a little of Las Vegas) still make for some interesting atmospherics.