ONE WAY

Stars: Colson Baker, Storm Reid, Drea de Matteo, Travis Fimmel, Rhys Coiro, Meagan Holder,  Luis Da Silva Jr., Thomas Francis Murphy, K.D. O'Hair and Kevin Bacon.
Writer: Ben Conway
Director: Andrew Baird

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½

The school bus drivers of my youth would have wrapped up Andrew Baird’s backseat potboiler One Way in about five minutes, so demanding were they of good behaviour. There was no tolerance for bags of coke, cash, handguns or bleeding-out petty crims on the Carlingford-Epping Hillsbus #549. Fortunately, for audiences who appreciate a well-structured and atmospheric crime thriller, the Sunways coachline team let a lot unravel on this late night run.

Fleeing a bold and bloody drug/cash heist is mid-level street hood Freddy, played by Colson Baker. Those of a certain age know the star as white rapper/red-carpet staple Machine Gun Kelly, aka MGK, but here he is donning his ‘serious actor’ persona. And he’s very good, conveying first the pain of a gut-shot wound and then existential angst as he realises he needs to get things in order with his ex, ER nurse Christine (Meghan Holder) and estranged daughter (Colson’s real-life tyke, Casie Baker) before the inevitable happens (not really a spoiler, as it’s right there in the title).

Trying to navigate his way out of trouble and into Christine’s care from a bus seat, Freddy befriends teen runaway Rachel (a terrific Storm Reid) while coping with the occasional pain-related hallucination. Also on board is Travis Fimmel’s social worker Phil (“You don’t look like a social worker,” notes Freddy, presciently) and, as the aforementioned bus driver who only has eyes for the road ahead, Thomas Francis Murphy. As the Puerto Rican crime boss hunting down our anti-hero, Drea de Matteo deliver ice-cold villainy well; as Freddy’s scumbag father, whose rare blood type may be all that can save his desperate son, Kevin Bacon brings that capital-H ‘Hollywood’ presence to some nasty moments.

Freddy carries two mobiles (including a ‘burner’, which I’ve learned is a thing today), which means One Way is a film in which a lot of time is spent watching actors reacting to phone screens and not other actors; it is usually something I cringe at, but Baird, DOP Tobia Sempi and editor John Walters keep the interactions lively. It is also likely the project was bound by pandemic protocols, adding immeasurably to the credit due the production unit for pulling off such a convincing confined-space dramatic conceit.

The Irish director’s first mainland U.S.A. shoot is steeped in the rain-soaked, neon-bathed lore of ‘70’s American crime-noir thrillers; it is not too hard to envision a version of One Way with Walter Hill calling the shots and a cast boasting the likes of Bruce Dern and Warren Oates. Baird leans into some modern flourishes that Hill and his hard-edged contemporaries would have baulked at (lens flare, slow-motion, strong female characters), but it is nevertheless a sturdy work and confirms the filmmaker is a talent to watch.

THE PICKUP GAME

Featuring: Robert Beck, Maximilian Berger, Minnie Lane, Paul Janka, Ross Jefferies, Jennifer Li, Marcus Nero and Erik Von Markovik.
Writers: James De'Val , Barnaby O'Connor, Matthew O'Connor and Mike Willoughby.
Directors: Barnaby O'Connor, Matthew O'Connor.

Premieres on Australian streaming platform iwonder, September 2020 (date tbc).

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Predatory alpha-male entrepreneurs and the vulnerable marks that they exploit are put on trial in The Pickup Game, a searing, exciting exposé of the ‘seduction coaching’ industry and the sexual snake-oil salesmen bleeding millions of dollars from desperately lonely sadsacks who equate meaningless conquest with manlihood. Directing brothers Barnaby and Matthew O'Connor’s skewering of toxic masculinity and coldhearted capitalism could not be better timed or more scalpel-like in its incisiveness.

Since self-styled seduction guru Ross Jefferies published the misogyny-laden bestseller ‘How to Get the Women you Desire into Bed’ in the mid-80s, the application of such pseudo-scientific concepts as Neuro-Linguistic Programming to bed women has boomed (mostly online, of course) yet has somehow managed to maintain a ‘Fight Club’-like secrecy. Entirely aware of the reprehensibility of their undertaking, pickup preachers like Robert ‘Beckster’ Beck and Marcus ‘Justin Wayne’ Nero hide behind terminology like ‘Higher Self Learning’ and ‘Confidence Enhancement’ to sell lengthy courses in what are essentially hunting techniques; manipulation methodology designed to identify potential victims, isolate the vulnerable and ‘close the deal’.

The O’Connors pinpoint the 2005 publication of writer Neil Strauss’ The Game as the kicker for the new wave of male self-entitlement. Strauss lived undercover with pioneers like Erik von Markovik, aka ‘Mystery’, at the height of the ‘Project Hollywood’ movement, when a group of men defined the predation process through night after night of Sunset Strip partying. Breakaways from Project Hollywood would go on the establish the insidious Real Social Dynamics (RSD), an online society that grew into a cesspool of abuse advocacy, provided the platform for misogynist/racist Julien Blanc and, ultimately, became the focus of a highly-publicised San Diego rape prosecution.

The Pickup Game presents the key tenents of seduction coaching, ensuring that its audience fully understands the principles being taught. It also offers a broad spectrum of views - MRA hero and tightly man-bunned industry leader Maximilian Berger, aka 'RSDMax', has plenty to say (much of it in defense of Blanc and the reception afforded him by Melbourne demonstrators in 2014); veteran pickup-artist Paul Janka recalls the emotional void and exhausting pointlessness of committing to a PUA’s life; and, dating coach Minnie Lane presents the women’s perspective and how learning to overcome ‘approach anxiety’ need not utilise manipulation and predation.

The film ultimately returns to where the pickup industry began - Ross Jefferies’ decision to alter the course of his life. Some time 40 years ago, it inspired an angry young man to turn his insecurities regarding women into rage-filled sex and shitty writing. In 2019, believe it or not, the reality of the life of an ageing PUA - the very life awaiting those dire modern disciples of Jefferies' drivel - is even sadder.