11:14 (2003)

Directed by: Greg Marcks | 85 minutes | drama, comedy, crime, thriller | Actors: Rachael Leigh Cook, Hillary Swank, Henry Thomas, Patrick Swayze, Shawn Hatosy, Colin Hanks, Ben Foster. Blake Heron, Barbara Hershey, Clark Gregg, Jason Segel, Rick Gomez

With ’11:14′, director and scriptwriter Greg Marcks has delivered a dream debut that is rock solid and has you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The ingenious script only creates more curiosity as the story gets clearer. This approach of shuffling the chronology is not entirely original, for example in ‘Memento’ this cunning concept was already performed virtuoso and also in films like ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Snatch’ there are genius tricks with this way of telling.

That’s quite a few contemporary classics in one sentence, but ’11:14′ can actually handle the comparison with these toppers. It is not for nothing that this film was one of the big audience favorites at the Amsterdam ‘Festival of the Fantastic Film’ in 2004!

And that while this isn’t even a horror movie. Although there are some very macabre scenes with a corpse without a face. The whole film is topped with a thick layer of jet-black humor. For example, the story takes place in a random American ‘suburb’, in which the inhabitants display the same silliness as, for example, the characters from ‘Fargo’ by the Coen brothers.

The soundtrack is also excellent, with wonderfully uplifting hip music during chase scenes and more mellow background music during quieter parts that exactly hit the tone of the film. And with Bree Sharp’s revamped version of ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ in the grand finale, this oldie Nancy Sinatra instantly becomes a song you can never hear again without thinking about this scene. Add the strong cast to all this and we can rightfully speak of a contemporary classic. What an ingenious script, what a pitch-black humor and what a daring sex scene towards the end of the film!

And then we also see Patrick Swayze as a fat family man – especially for the recordings, the well-trained actor walked around in a fat suit. Even though Swayze will remain ‘that guy from Dirty Dancing’ for the rest of his life, with strong supporting roles in brilliant independent films like ‘Donnie Darko’ and ’11:14′, the former teen idol seems to have developed a nose for good roles in strong movies.

Based on ’11:14′ we can conclude that Greg Marcks is a very talented filmmaker who can already be mentioned in the same breath as directors such as Christopher Nolan or David Fincher.