Seven Minutes

7 Minutes, directed by music video director Jay Martin, is a thriller that borrows elements from three classic American genres: noir, Western and ganster films.

In a world of new media in which the boundaries between film and TV are crossed on a daily basis we have a cast fully rooted in television.
Sam (played by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Luke Mitchell), Mike (Parenthood’s Jason Ritter) and Owen (From Dusk to Dawn’s Zane Holtz) are three young friends living in a gloomy American town.

Sam could have been a football star and Mike could be a perfect husband and father, but this fast and gripping story does not leave any door opened for social redemption.
After getting into debt with the town’s drug dealer the three need money as fast as possible. And so, seven minutes becomes their time limit to complete an armed robbery.

The narrative unravels through a non-linear storytelling which keeps the spectator hooked to the action while discovering the characters back-stories. The well-executed photography reveals a landscape with no place for the American dream and the narrative is orchestrated so that it reveals one little plot twist at a time.

The film, however, often uses clichès and visual gimmicks which make the storyline a flat rather than an intriguing one. Tarantino’s influence is clearly visible, but 7 Minutes could have benefit from a more refined and nostalgic narrative development. The characters had, in fact, a great potential that may have not been fully unfolded.

There were possibly two unwilling homages to American characters par excellence, the John Wayne-like cowboy, torn between home and wilderness, and Bonnie and Clyde whose story resonates in Sam’s and Kate’s relationship.

Kate is driving with Sam by her side, her hair covered in a scarf and, for a moment, they seems to be Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty living in the continuous hope of getting out of there alive.