'The Pinch': Ashley Scott Meyers cobbles together a quirky, modern neo-noir
The problem with commercial movies is that they follow a set formula and end up feeling uninteresting and predictable. The formula — guaranteed to bring in the crowds — usually involves a protagonist, a love interest and a seemingly insurmountable challenge and/or an incomprehensibly evil villain.
Independent films, on the other hand, break away from these formulaic constraints and end up feeling fresh. The great thing about indie films is that the director is free to pretty much do anything to bring to life their unique vision. However, to say that Ashley Scott Meyers made full use of this freedom in ‘The Pinch’ would be an overstatement.
As it turns out, this indie is also trying to stick to a formula; not the one mentioned above but, none the less, a successful one. As a result, there are novel moments in this neo-noir that completely take you by surprise.
The neo-noir genre has been around since the '50s and, over the decades, there have been many game changers that took the genre in new directions. One such gamechanger was Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction', and the similarities between Tarantino’s masterpiece and Meyers' film are unmistakable and uncanny.
