I saw this short at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films and was very impressed by this psychological drama from first-time director Alex Merkin who wrote the story and edited the 25 minute film as well. Kris Johnson, Jesse Mittlestadt and Julien Schwab contributed to the screenplay. Andrew Carranza is the cinematographer who uses great lighting and camera angles to bring the tension of the story to life. Adrian Grenier from the HBO series Entourage stars as Julian who is taking a leisurely bath when he gets a call from his best friend Terry played by James Oliver who has discovered his girlfriend is cheating on him and he has followed her to a hotel she and her lover have checked into. Terry has been drinking and has a gun with him. Oliver turns in a great performance in this role as the jealous, menacing boyfriend and I hope to see him in feature film roles. Only two other on-screen roles in this small cast and they are Natalie Smyka as the cheating fiancée June and Jamie Benge as a porter in the hotel. This film gets your imagination going and throws a lot of surprises at you. I would give this an 8.5 out of 10.
Review of Across the Hall
