Created by Tom Konkle
TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS was a 2017 straight-to-streaming B-flick that hits the vanity project hattrick, written directed and starring Tom Konkle as ROLAND DRAKE, a down-on-his-luck 1940s private eye caught between the two hot-to-trot Montemar sisters. Problem is, one’s dead and the other possibly killed her.
It’s your typically earnest and enthusiastic low-budget video fare, with a little bit more attention to period detail and plot than most, but still not quite enough to pull it off. As it is, we’re presented with a squeaky clean, almost antiseptic sense of the era, played out against the typical obligatory, horn-laden soundtrack, with some awkward but passionate acting, some great costumes and some nice, shiny automobiles that, alas, look more like borrowed museum pieces than actual working cars.
Similarly, the plot at first seems pleasantly complex, but ends up as predictable as a clock; as comfortably generic as the film’s audaciously borrowed title.
Like, does the Chandler estate get a cut?
Can they sue?
They bill it as neo-noir, and even offer a black-and-white version on the Blu-Ray release. But come on.
Neo-noir? Sorry, man, but neo nah is more like it.
There’s no doubt of the sincerity of everyone involved, but as it is, it’s more like a well-intentioned love letter, marred by unfortunate typos.
FILMS
- TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS | Buy the DVD |Buy the Blu-Ray | Watch it now!
(2017, Lumen Actus)
Written by Tom Konkle & Brittney Powell
Directed by Tom Konkle
Producers: Tom Konkle, Michael Smith
Starring Tom Konkle as ROLAND DRAKE
Also starring Vernon Wells, Brittney Powell, Tom Konkle, Jana Barker, David Beeler, Patrick H. Breen, Carl Bryan
Hey we tried 😉