D is for dynamic. D is for dazzling. D is for The Deal, the dynamic, dazzling crime short written and directed by McGregory Frederique. After a wild police chase ends with arrests and bookings at the North Hollywood Police station, we follow Detective Gonzalez (Jisaura Cardinale) into one of the interrogation rooms. In there waiting is punk rock goth girl Sarah Wilson (Grace Bozza), who gladly accepts a mug of coffee. When Gonzalez starts asking Sarah what happened, we flashback with grainy grindhouse footage of Sarah walking into the apartment of her boyfriend, Steven Carter (Brett Robert Culbert).
She hears noises emitting from the closed bedroom door, a lot of moaning and groaning, with it sounding like someone making a juicy skank sandwich. Sarah leaves the door closed and silently storms out, picking up her phone to inform the police about Carter’s party favor distribution activities. Meanwhile, inside the bedroom, Carter is indeed in a three way with Lexi (Emma Kotos) and Skyla (Sylina Renae). While ingesting some more booger sugar for round three with the two, he gets a mysterious phone call. Someone wants to do some business, Sarah is pissed off to no return, and Detective Gonzalez is on the way to finding out what’s at the bottom of this La-La land barrel.
“…Carter is indeed in a three way with Lexi and Skyla…”
The Deal has the immediate urgency of a door opening on a flying plane. I am talking gloriously relentless, with director Frederique keeping the insane rush going all throughout the 22-minute runtime. The nitro in the tank is the amazing musical score by Lassi Tany, with its pulsating intensity making every frame hit like a freight train. We also have some great editing by Akim Kerimov, with these smooth cuts that slide into a bang. I am talking hints of Guy Ritchie, it hits very fast and hard.
But it is Frederique’s smart moves that are the muscle of this beast. I loved how everything explodes with this crazy chase sequence to get everything up to volume 11, only to then use it as an Altman-like segue into someone else’s story at the station. Frederique keeps everything very slick and very neon, which makes this look like it costs a lot more than it did. The dialogue and performances are B-movie quality, which actually increases the film’s runaway fun times. I have no doubt that a feature from Frederique would be just as fast and fun as this short. Trust me, you want to be in on The Deal.
"…has the immediate urgency of a door opening on an flying plane."
