Let’s just say I hope to never have to play Russian roulette. Is that so hard? Director Bryan Bockbrader walks us into a seedy back room in A Little R&R, where fate or fortune wins in the end.
Angelo (Gary Matthew) walks into a nightclub and asks to be taken to the back room, where players are sitting around a table with a deck of cards. Something is off about this game. Nobody at the table looks happy to be there. Apparently, they’re all here because they screwed up royally, and Big Boss Vinnie wants them to play a game. Our players are Angelo, Val (Roxanna Medina), Simon (Adam Guthrie), Vinnie’s lawyer, Dean (Bryan Bockbrader), and Bruno (Jerry Rector), who knows way too much about what’s going to happen.
Dean squeezes his eyes shut with a revolver pressed under his chin in A Little R&R.
“Apparently, they’re all here because they screwed up royally, and Big Boss Vinnie wants them to play a game.”
A mysterious man approaches the table carrying a box with instructions. The players draw cards to see who gets the honor of opening it, and of course, it’s Angelo. Inside are a revolver, four bullets, and the rules. The game is Russian roulette, and the prize is $1 million. High card goes first, and play moves clockwise from there. That means Angelo is up. What are the odds the first trigger pull has a bullet in the chamber?
Filmmaker Bryan Bockbrader sets a nice comedic-thriller tone for A Little R&R. We feel the gravity of the game, but a light touch takes the edge off a bit. Bockbrader and writer Hunter M. Davis explore a few trouble-with-the-mob tropes while fulfilling and subverting expectations along the way. As Bruno, Jerry Rector keeps us, the audience, on track to a final, satisfying twist ending. Solid story and short film all around.
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"…I hope to never have to play Russian roulette."
