Amazing Fantasy Fest Coverage
Rich Interior Lives review.
A dinner party full of ulterior motives drives Rich Interior Lives.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Rich Interior Lives
Directed by Ken Whiting
Written by Andrew Bonazelli
Starring Parker Shook, Teresa Byrne, Kei’la Ryan, Gregory Shelby, John Reddy, Kai Enzo, RaShad Arnold and Lucas Brehm
Rich Interior Lives Review
A stacked day two of Amazing Fantasy Fest saw the Film Festival Premiere of mystery/thriller/fantasy/drama/…not easily defined Rich Interior Lives. Director Ken Whiting was on hand for a post-screening Q&A along with writer Andrew Bonazelli and actress Teresa Byrne. A Q&A was needed after one of the most interesting films of the festival…one that is going to prove difficult to review as it holds its secrets close to the chest until late in the story.
Something feels off about Rich Interior Lives right from the start. An extended opening scene puts us into a car with Colt (Parker Shook) and Mary (Teresa Byrne). The couple is about to attend a dinner party with Colt’s lifelong crush Dana (Kei’la Ryan). Thrown as a thank you for Colt saving her life…for the third time. Colt is easily aggravated, consistently condescending, and instantly unlikable. You’ll find yourself asking why Mary is wasting her time with this man. It will only get more confusing when Dana spends the night throwing herself at him. There’s nothing remarkable about Colt. Or so appearances would have you believe.
Dana surprises Colt with a visit from her brother (and his childhood friend) Logan (Gregory Shelby). Their relationship is instantly antagonistic. They paint a picture about Colt that doesn’t fit anything we’ve seen. A former football star who dated the hottest girls around. Modern day Colt is a humorless shlub of a man who couldn’t tell an interesting story to save his life. Why is Logan jealous of this man? How does Mary put up with him? And why is Dana so desperate to get him in her clutches?
Rich Interior Lives will have you asking all the right questions before you realize there is a purpose to asking them. A clever script keeps everyone’s true intentions hidden from us until its time for the third act twists and turns. The foursome plays their parts well through the purposeful confusion of multiple conversations and character motivations. What makes Rich Interior Lives difficult to review is how much of its success depends upon the answers to these questions. We can’t get into the why of things in this article.
What’s important to know is that Andrew Bonazelli’s screenplay is very good. It keeps you wondering what’s so special about this unimpressive man…knowing that it has an answer worthy of the wait. Parker Shook plays Colt as a cold, boring man who you wouldn’t want to break bread with. Kei’la Ryan makes Dana a fun, purposely confounding, character. Her attraction to Colt defies explanation. Until it doesn’t. Teresa Byrne’s Mary is confusing for different reasons. Unlike Dana, there doesn’t seem to be any secret behind her relationship with Colt. But, like I said, Andrew Bonazelli’s script is very good. Mary begins to show herself to be a walking contradiction. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Then there is the matter of Colt’s trifecta of life saving escapades. Dana has been in his life for a long time and, by happenstance, he’s somehow managed to gallantly save her no less than three times. The Colt we are introduced to seems incapable of holding a door open for his mother, let alone death-defying heroism. There’s something strange about Rich Interior Lives alright. And it’s going to provide a lot of fun in the movie’s third act. The borderline strange dinner conversations turn to full blown crazy. When Rich Interior Lives reveals its dark ulterior motives…it takes on a different tone. Mystery gives way to madness.
Director Ken Whiting gets a lot out of the (mostly) one location setting. Every piece of the house or its surrounding property feels different enough to avoid monotony. This is a dialog heavy movie, obviously. Whiting keeps the pace up as the story weaves its way through confusion to deliver a climax that pays off the answers to every question you had…in unexpectedly entertaining ways. Rich Interior Lives is a unique movie. A simple dinner party is hiding something unexpected beneath the surface. It’s well worth grabbing a plate and watching it reveal itself.
Scare Value
Rich Interior Lives is a tough movie to review. It keeps its true purpose(s) hidden until it breaks into act III. The end game is brilliant. The road to it can be a little confusing…but it’s consistently entertaining. It’s a clever script that has you asking the right questions before you are sure the story intends on answering them. Rest assured, there are reasons for everything that happens here. Rich Interior Lives puts on a good show telling you what those reasons are.
