MicroCinema Scene

I admire director Alex P. Michaels for having a vision, and to be able to draw the people around him in to see his vision become a reality.  But what that vision is truly confounds me.  Blood Kiss: Soul of a Woman is part horror, part relationship drama, part noir, and part something that defies description. 

The feature flies in the face of conventional narrative structure in many ways.  The relationships between the characters, and the characters to the greater world, don’t add up to normal human interaction.  And in a technical sense, traditional cinema storytelling techniques aren’t applied in any accepted way, including core elements such as shot framing and editing.

But how much is part of Michaels’ artistic vision?  I fear not enough.  There are too many fundamental errors, such as alarming jump cuts, out-of-focus shots, poor sound, flagrant continuity errors, and more, throughout.  Although a notable improvement over Michaels’ nigh-unwatchable feature The Hot Rain, he still has a long way to go to show command of basic storytelling fundamentals.

You can feel Michaels’ urgency in wanting to tell his stories, and he brings some interesting ideas to the table; but he is undone at times by still-developing skills.  However, there are bright spots, including some good performances (especially lead Nina Angeloff) and interesting use of locations.  And despite many flaws, I was engaged enough to continue to watch the tangled tale unfold.

I hope Michaels continues to hone his skills in future projects, and brings his interesting work to another level.

One star.

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