Light It, Shoot It

An ex-con heads to 1970s Hollywood looking for a second chance only to end up in deeper trouble than before, in this fittingly sleazy throwback noir from Chaffee (To Have and To Hold). Billy Bonney is an anxious stutterer just out of prison, hated by most people in his small Western town for burning down the local factory—so he heads to L.A. to find his older brother Bobby, a gofer on the set of a grindhouse horror flick costarring their pugnacious drunk of an uncle, a “notorious bad boy” of the film biz. Billy promptly gets shunted aside by Chaffee, and the narrative reorients around Saul, a skirt-chasing producer known as the “King of Lowbudget,” who’s being pressured by his hoodlum backers to torch his studio for the insurance money. The script spins its wheels, taking in the ambient scuzz while the gears click into place for a showdown too preordained to have much bite. Still, Chaffee’s pastel washes, clear affection for the period, and well-stocked gallery of colorful hoodlums and reluctant heroes make up for the lack of suspense. It’s a sure thing for comics fans who dream of Quentin Tarantino helming a Raymond Chandler adaptation. (Apr.)