One Day as a Lion
Crime caper a movie of moments rather than a cohesive whole.
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Director John Swab is one busy dude. It’s only April and he’s already dropping his third film of the year. January saw the release of truck stop sex worker slasher flick “Candy Land” (Caine Gardner’s review here). In February we were graced with the Frank Grillo-fronted mob movie “Little Dixie (my review here). Now we’ve got “One Day as a Lion” (available in select theaters including GQT Brownsburg 8 GDX in Brownsburg, Ind., GQT Lebanon 7 in Lebanon, Ind. and GQT Eastside 10 IMAX in Lafayette, Ind. starting Tuesday, April 4 and on VOD beginning Friday, April 7). It’s the least of Swab’s 2023 offerings, but it’s not without its charms and strengths.
Jackie Powers (Scott Caan, who also scripted) is a former boxer and current mob errand boy who’ll do whatever he can to stop his son Billy (Dash Melrose) from following in his footsteps. Unfortunately, Billy’s been wrongly implicated in the kidnapping of a classmate and has been incarcerated. The boy’s mother Taylor Love (Taryn Manning) is of no real help so it’ll be up to Jackie to bankroll Billy’s legal defense.
Jackie turns to mob middle man Dom Lorenzo (George Carroll AKA rapper Slaine) with whom he came up in the system for help. Dom gives Jackie a job on behalf of pizza purveying boss Pauly Russo (Grillo) to wack indebted gambler Walter Boggs (Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons). The hit, which Jackie tries to pull off in a diner, doesn’t go as planned. Panicked, Jackie kidnaps waitress Lola Brisky (Marianne Rendón), with Dom, Pauly, Walter and the police all in hot pursuit. Jackie and Lola form an unlikely alliance and hit up her moneyed, cancer-stricken mother Valerie (underused Oscar-nominee Virginia Madsen) for their mutual financial benefit.
Promotional materials for “One Day as a Lion” refer to the film as, “a witty homage to Tarantino and the Coen brothers.” It doesn’t hold a candle to “Pulp Fiction” and it sure as shit ain’t as good as “Fargo.” Qualitatively the picture hews closer to Tarantino knockoffs that proliferated the 1990s, i.e. “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead” or “2 Days in the Valley.” That is to say it’s OK.
As a screenwriter Caan is a capable actor. I’m sure the project is near and dear to the actor’s heart as it primarily deals with the relationship between a father and a son and he recently lost his legendary Dad (to whom the film is partially dedicated), but it often feels a bit like a vanity project for the performer. (Caan strips down to his tighty-whities … admittedly, he looks pretty good … to beat the hell out of a much bigger man.) I can’t help but feel the film would’ve been better had it been scribed by Swab, who’s always written his own material otherwise.
“One Day as a Lion” is a movie of moments rather than a cohesive whole. The botched hit, a metaphorical dick-measuring contest between Grillo and Simmons’ characters and a last-minute shootout (Swab had better skirmishes in previous efforts “Ida Red” and the aforementioned “Little Dixie”) entertain. Caan and Rendón don’t have enough chemistry to make their scenes truly sing. The interplay between Caan and Melrose fares better, but Billy could’ve and should’ve been more developed.
Where “One Day as a Lion” most succeeds is in its stylistic nods to the 1970s and 1980s. Swab always rocks old school title cards and the picture concludes abruptly with a badass freeze frame. I also adored David Sardy’s synth-y, Afro-centric score. I’m not generally one to hang out and listen to scores, but this is one with which I can vibe.
Swab is a busy and talented enough filmmaker that I’m certain he can bounce back from this minor misstep. He’s already got two other projects in pre-production and I’m certainly curious to see how they’ll pan out.