Extraction, USA
Indiana indie filmmakers find themselves behind the eight ball with misbegotten heist flick.
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Full Disclosure: Peter Matsoukas co-wrote and co-produced “Extraction, USA.” He’s an acquaintance of mine and a colleague and friend of one of my good buddies. I was also an extra in Matsoukas’ film “B Lines,” which is currently available to rent or stream on Prime Video. I was approached to review “Extraction, USA” by one of the film’s stars and producers. They requested that coverage run concurrently with the movie’s appearance at the American Film Market. Per Rotten Tomatoes, the picture is available to stream as of today.
I don’t review a lot of Indiana films despite being an Indiana resident. I dipped my toes into the waters earlier this year with Eric Pascarelli’s “Dracula: The Count’s Kin” (review here). One of that movie’s stars Leanne Johnson headlines “Extraction, USA” as Marni, a cocktail waitress and sometime pool hustler living in the nowhere town of Extraction. She’s got a sexist dick of a boss named Daryl (a very amusing Derek McMahan) and a bullied teenage son named Jason (Chase Strange).
Marni doesn’t have two nickels to rub together and can barely afford to send Jason on a field trip or pay for his school lunch. Things arguably take a turn for the better when drifter Steph (Marlee Carpenter) enters Marni’s bar and life. The two meet cute over beers and a pool table and Steph actually bests the gifted Marni in two games out of three. Before you know it, the gals are in an alley making out. They take their show on the road back to Marni’s house.
As the women’s romance blossoms so too do their money-making schemes. They show up for a private game at a home belonging to Jack (James Tackett, also jerkily entertaining) and later roll a poolroom gambling operation. High from their latest score, Marni and Steph get ideas about robbing Daryl’s safe. They want to start a new life out West and want to take Jason with them … even if this takes him away from the volunteer work he’s been doing with his mentor Joseph (Dannon Everett).
There’s much about “Extraction, USA” I enjoyed and a lot that I didn’t. I dug Johnson’s central performance, but didn’t respond to Carpenter’s nearly as much. It’s cool that the film has a queer relationship at its center and doesn’t make a big deal about it, but this romance would work better if both actresses were on equal footing.
As shot, chopped and directed by Mike Yonts, the pool sequences are pretty good and have a nice forward momentum to them. I also liked a lot of the music used in the movie even if some of it is pretty hokey. (The closing credits tune had the following lyrics, “Live, laugh, love with salt and a lime.” What in the Kenny Chesney Salt Life Sam Hill is this shit?!!!)
The script by Matsoukas and Yonts alternates between insipid and inspired. Sometimes it’s funny, but it’s often debatable whether this is intentional or not. I certainly vibed with the story more in the early goings as opposed to the concluding segment.
Unfortunately, the film’s black characters are treated somewhat shabbily. One prostitutes herself and gets beaten up. The other (one of the picture’s only and certainly most redeemable characters) is unceremoniously crapped on allowing our white antiheroes to live happily ever after. To add insult to injury, this character is subsequently treated to a montage that plays more as parody than tribute.
I’m certainly rooting for these local filmmakers and there’s promise shown here, but there were definitely times where I would’ve liked to have extracted myself from “Extraction, USA.”