Clutch

Writer-director Michael Merino’s Clutch is a tense indie thriller set over one harrowing night. The story follows a ride-share driver who crosses paths with a desperate fugitive.

Tonya (Sadie Katz) is a ride-share driver grinding through another difficult night, hoping to avoid being hit on by her passengers again. Her night is interrupted when her ex-boyfriend, Marty (Michael Paré), refuses to stop calling and begs her to leave behind her unfulfilling life for one of protection and stability with him. Despite his pleas, Tonya stands firm in her decision to trust her instincts.

Her next ride is Xavier (Kaiwi Lyman), who enters her car and immediately holds her at gunpoint. He demands Tonya’s phone and throws it out the window, and then hands her $10,000 in cash as compensation for the trouble. Hoping to defuse the situation, Xavier offers another $20,000 if she’ll drive him out of town. But when he briefly steps away, he ties Tonya to the steering wheel to keep her from escaping. Tonya calls out to a homeless man for help, but Xavier kills him on the spot, leaving Tonya shaken and trapped with no escape in sight.

As the night escalates, Tonya discovers Xavier has stolen a large sum of money from a dangerous gangster, Fuentes (Vernon Wells), whose goons are currently hunting him down for a hefty bounty. Xavier knows that getting caught means death, not only for him but also for anyone who helps him. With her life hanging in the balance, Tonya faces a crucial decision: help Xavier escape and always be looking over her shoulder, or fight for her own survival and freedom in a world where danger lurks around every corner.

Kaiwi Lyman stars as Xavier, a desperate fugitive on the run, in Michael Merino’s indie thriller Clutch.

“With her life hanging in the balance, Tonya faces a crucial decision.”

Clutch is a nice, tight indie thriller. Much of the action takes place in Tonya’s car, and writer/director Michael Merino makes the most of this tight space two-hander, making it look interesting. Shooting in a car is also a good way to shoot in Los Angeles without a permit (but you didn’t read that here…screw LA!).

The heart of the film is putting our characters in an impossible situation and trying to figure out how they’ll get out of it. Tonya is a normal person put in danger. She has no connection to Xavier and his problems, but now she’s involved, and she has no military or mercenary-type skills to get her out of it. For Xavier, he almost has one foot out the door. He already has the cash and the means to get out of town to disappear, but in truth, he knows deep down he’s going to have to confront the problem. As the stress builds, Tonya and Xavier are forced to see one another as equals.

This also wouldn’t be an action thriller, unless we got some gunplay and a few fistfights. Now, I understand the reason for using CG gunfire, but hopefully, in a year or so, it will look more realistic. That said, the action sequences are quite good and sure, I’d like to see more, but such are the limitations of indie filmmaking. Overall, we have a solid action film with strong performances by Sadie Katz and Kaiwi Lyman as Tonya and Xavier and an even creepier performance by Vernon Wells as mob boss Fuentes. Villains always get the best roles in indie films.

In the end, Clutch delivers exactly what it promises—a suspenseful, tightly paced ride through the streets of a city at night. For fans of indie thrillers, this one’s worth a ride.