REVIEW: MISFITS

MISFITS is the feature film debut from writer/director Kris McMenamin, and for a micro-budget indie, it punches above its weight class.

The story focuses mainly on Josh (Sam Meola) and his struggles to hold his family together with his ailing wife Sandy (CeeCee Simone) and bills and troubles piling up. It traces a path from adolescence to middle age with his gang of misfit friends, wannabe actor Ryan (Christian Levens), den mother Becca (Kat Reeve) unsure dreamer Spencer (Jacob Burke) and innocent Lucas (Russell Levin)

While taking place over a few different timelines, the story mostly focuses on the near-present, and after a semi-disastrous Christmas party, a wild scheme to enter a Santa-themed wrestling competition in order to keep the family home, or at least keep the bill collectors at bay for a little longer. I'll let the viewers find out for themselves what the end result of Wrestlemania on a budget is!

The movie's themes of friendship, family, and friends-as-family reminded me a little bit of ST. ELMO'S FIRE, that Brat Pack film from days gone by. The film worked on a number of levels, but it did miss in a few spots. The time jumps were confusing at first, and the younger actors didn't match up as well as you would like to their older counterparts.

The sound mix and the editing were a bit rough in spots, but this is the world of micro-budget indie film after all, so you have to give them a bit of a pass there. The run time also felt a bit long for an indie, clocking in at close to two hours, but I was kept fairly engaged throughout.

Sam Meola as Josh and Kat Reeve as Becca gave some standout performances in my opinion, and the rest of the cast performed adequately. The soundtrack full of Punk Rock music fit the tone well and I thought was an excellent choice because it really ripped along, and the wrestling scenes were a hell of a lot of fun!

So while it's definitely a little rough around the edges, MISFITS is a fun little indie with its heart in the right place, a killer soundtrack, and is certainly worth a watch!