Cleaver’s Destiny
Starring: Jenny Leona di Gennaro, Karl Lentini, Alexis Corey
Director: Karl Lentini
Amy just wants to be famous, she recently ended an affair she was having with her married acting teacher. She has no money, a mom who works as a psychic and thinks her father is dead. When she receives a box of family mementos, the pictures of her vet father cause her to seek out her now homeless dad.
When you read the title Cleaver’s Destiny you might think that this is a fantasy film about a knife, rather this is an indie film with a meandering plot that seems to want to deliver a message about mental illness (Convenient bench advertisement) yet fails to deliver any message at all.
Written, Directed and Starring Karl Lentini as the Vet who has come back to the states as damaged goods, now living on the street. Bill Cleaver doesn’t suffer from post traumatic stress disorder which one might think he would after killing one of his best friends accidentally during the war, rather he suffers from some form of dementia that we are told can have its good and bad days. Essentially this means that Bill will stare into space and not really communicate. He has no idea what to do with a shower or a razor yet judging by the length of stubble and the fact that he isn’t that dirty must be attributed to him having a bad day. If Karl was hoping to utilize this as a springboard into bigger acting roles, he should know there isn’t much demand for emotionless starring that doesn’t involve Kristen Stewart.
Amy tries to bond with her father, and then distances herself when she finds out more about him. She has no money of her own, gets booted out of her home by not being able to cover her portion of rent. Clearly she is a chip off the old block. Amy also just isn’t a very interesting character, we don’t see much of the relationship with her acting teacher or what drove them together, She is terrible at her job and as a friend.
The Cinematography is amateurish looking like it was shot on VHS, with far too many close-ups and minimal establishing shots.
At one point in the film there is a fight with another homeless man, yet when they walk away the homeless man is hiding in the shadows. He miraculously is able to transport himself and improvise an extremely pathetic weapon yet surprisingly effective weapon.
This is Clearly a labor of love given all the hats that Karl wore to complete the film. There just isn’t enough material here to warrant a short let alone a feature.
Grade-59
