“Down To The Felt” Adds A Much Needed Edge To The Buddy Cop Genre

Courtesy of Hawk Hill Pictures

“This film allowed me to dig into the complexities of human relationships, set against a backdrop of crime and competition.” - from director Jon Osbeck on the official Down To The Felt website.

A man who chooses death but then decides to step off that path. An assassin who is caught between a righteous life and a numbing one. A woman who plays it cool until the very end. Down To The Felt takes these three characters and stirs each one into a slow-play kind of story - and because of the movie’s surprising attention to detail - it mostly works. This Michael Stahl-David, Michael Weston and Scottie Thompson featuring movie is described as an action comedy thriller on the IMDB page. To mash those three genres together is definitely a heavy handed task.

While I wouldn’t say the film outright balances these cinematic categories serendipitously, there is definitely something profound just beneath the gunplay and professional violence that steers this movie from beginning to end. Don’t get me wrong, the story here is definitely unique but the presentation (and stylization) is what sets Down To The Felt apart from other films trying to balance funny and seriousness.

The Stahl-David, Weston and Thompson trio respectively play the three most important parts to this movie - Paul, David and Erica. Stahl-David’s Paul is the everyman in all of this, succumbing to so many problems that he assigns Weston’s David to outright kill him in two weeks time. He surmises that a life insurance policy will do better for the people in his life than he ever could. David, on the other hand, kills people for a living. He just seems to be having a religious-based moral crisis at the moment. Then there’s Thompson’s Erica in all of this. A romantic beacon of hope that Paul so desperately needed - but she has her own secret.

Down To The Felt shows us how Paul’s luck goes from bad to worse to good again. Admittedly, the beginning really takes time in delivering the downward spiral of the main character. He loses his job, loses his relationship, gets the debt collection calls - the typical run-of-the-mill beats. Luckily, actress Jo-Ann Robinson does a great job as Paul’s mother as she keeps the tempo afloat by temporarily delivering some much aggravated momentum. As Paul’s story went on, my interest in this Osbeck movie only strengthened. But not for reasons you may think.

The more we get to know Paul, the more we also get to know about David - this supposed formidable assassin. In the best of ways, there is something certainly mystical about Michael Weston’s performance. The killing of his targets (while waiting for his fateful day with Paul) just become more and more sloppy due to his virtuous dilemma. But Weston maintains a cold persona throughout - which creates this haunting image of a killer gone expired. Complimenting the character’s slowly coming-apart composure, the actor delivers his lines with almost a deteriorating slither in his voice.

The stylistic nuances surprisingly don’t stop there. Down To The Felt also comes through with the cinematography, color filtering and music selection. Striking red, blue and greens to convey feeling, cleverly making use of setting structure to depict scene tone (such as spiraling staircases and long hallways) and upbeat 50s music to contrast against the more suspenseful sequences. Between these stylistic perspectives and Weston’s soul stirring take on David, there is certainly an underlying rhythm to Osbeck’s film that cannot be denied.

The slow-play aspect is best in these small, but appreciated moments of filmmaking.

Admittedly, Paul doesn’t have much growth as a character until Scottie Thompson’s Erica comes into his life. Ms. Thompson is powerful in her role as Paul’s much needed foundation. He suddenly becomes just as interesting as the assassin who is coming for him. Erica just sparks a light in Paul’s eyes that supercharges the pacing of the entire movie.

With Paul’s due date coming closer, the cat and mouse game ramps up. Think of Daredevil and Kingpin in the diner or Vincent Hanna and Neil McCauley from Michael Mann’s Heat . . . Down To The Felt gives this type of showdown a much needed makeover. The two weeks are soon up and something has to give. Even though the script never becomes anything too impressive, some of the movie’s best moments come from Paul and David’s interactions. This twisted buddy cop dynamic is certainly a relationship unlike any other and Down To The Felt is worth watching just for that.

I will give Down To The Felt a 4 out of 5.

Just to name a few, Down To The Felt was shown at this year’s Cinequest Film Festival, the Big Apple Film Festival and the Cinema Columbus Film Festival - where it won the Audience Choice award. This new Jon Osbeck directed action-comedy-thriller will be available on all major streaming platforms starting from October 17th.

For more info about the film, check out https://www.downtothefeltmovie.com/.