1-800-Hot-Nite

This year 1-800-Hot-Nite was the first film of the official competition of the 48th edition of the American film festival and also a good surprise despite its few script weaknesses. Nick Richey, being as good a director as a writer, gives life to a film in the vein of the 80's films like Stand by me (1986). 

The three young actors are perfect in their roles and manage to capture the attention of the audience despite a rhythm too slow to hold our attention completely. A more striking editing would have undoubtedly improved this film and would have raised it to the top of the best films of the competition. 

It is interesting to see the look of emerging directors like Nick Richey on Los Angeles and their will to not only place the action in places too touristy. This look at this sprawling city brings to the film a certain originality and dismantles in its own way the famous American way of life and the fact that this city is not a paradise city far from there. The living conditions are difficult, especially if you are not born in a wealthy family like these young teenagers who will see their lives change forever.  We discover Tommy (Dallas Young) whose father has just been arrested by the police and decides to escape from child protection services. He finds himself wandering with his two best friends Steve and O'Neill in the streets of a Los Angeles neighborhood and as they meet each other they wonder what he should really do knowing that the police are looking for him and that his very young half-brother needs him.

1-800-Hot-Nite shows that it is possible to make successful films with very little money as long as you have excellent actors and a story that is certainly simplistic, as it is here, but capable of holding the audience's attention. Certainly the three young actors' performance is the strength of this film but we would have liked to have a better tempo and especially a real originality. Despite everything, the director and writer Nick Richey delivers a second interesting film that can be seen with pleasure.

1-800-Hot-Nite
Written and directed by Nick Richey
Produced by Trevor Lee Georgeson, Ben Jagger, Zach Mann, Warren Pereira, Nathan Presley, Ali Richey, Nick Richey, Phoenix Vaughn
Starring Dallas Dupree Young, Gerrison Machado, Mylen Bradford, Ali Richey, DaJuan Johnson, Nicole Steinwedel, Kimleigh Smith, Brent Bailey
Music by Stephen Schofield & Matt Chiarelli
Cinematography: Nathan Presley
Edited by John Quinn
Production companies : Halfway Crooks Entertainment
Running time : 96 minutes

Seen on September 3, 2022 at the Deauville International Centre

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