Simon (Shawn Andrews) is a gun running thug who claims he hates compassion more than anything. He shouldn’t worry, because there are very few people who would be willing to waste this precious ideal on a punk-assed loser like him. This is especially true after he pulls some of the stunts he does in director Robert Saitzyk’s tedious, darkly brooding bore “After the Flood.” Check out this laundry list of wholesome activities: In about twenty-four hours, Simon kidnaps Gabriela (Ola Metwally) at gun point from a junkie who owes him money — how’s that for a pick-up line? — and forges a tortured, ultimately doomed relationship with her. For an encore, he murders a complete stranger then fingers a willing prostitute in a church for penance. Nice guy, huh? By the end of “After the Flood,” few in the house will be pulling for this self-pitying cretin as he’s about to meet his demise at the hands of Charlie (Tony O’Brien), a crooked cop/hitman for the mob.
They will, on the other hand, be looking for “Third Rock from the Sun” or “That 70’s Show”; something, ANYthing frivolous and fun to watch after being drug through the muck and the mire of this depressing loser’s tawdry existence for an hour and a half.
Told in the form of a loosely connected triptych, Saitzyk’s gloomy character study is an exercise in self-congratulatory writing and method acting run amuck. While the first two segments are as ponderous as they are distasteful, the third is actually fairly compelling, probably because we think Simon is about to get what he deserves.
Unrelentingly depressing, violent and far too proud of itself for being so, there’s nothing that will wash away the icky aftertaste of “After the Flood.”
