Taglines: Two working class chancers. One big score.
The Pay Day is a heist comedy thriller that goes by in a flash. Much faster than you would expect considering much attention is given to its central character in the first act, through which we can suspect this will tilt the tower towards melodramatics. Fortunately Bradford lets a more natural approach take control of the script and The Pay Day is easily digestible in the world of indies.
Films shouldn’t be complex, far less when the plot doesn’t call for that. This is easily foreseen in the script stage when the idea of a story could certainly be manipulated in favor of a personal vision. In The Pay Day there’s none of this. This is a simple story, sharply executed by a good director and two good performers who happen to be in the writers’ seat as well. And I believe, there’s the key for the film being effective.
The plot goes like this. An IT specialist is broke. Her knowledge just isn’t enough to land an ideal job. One day she receives an offer to pull data from an office building for a crime lord seeking information of powerful people. She accepts of course. The pay is massive considering her financial situation.
Jennifer goes to the office building and after a few stumps she gets in. While she’s waiting for data to be downloaded, someone important enters the office. It seems she was caught. A few lines and she convinces the young man she doesn’t mean any harm and she’s just doing her job. He’s OK with this, but this is just too suspicious.
That’s when The Pay Day actually begins its run of major twists all practically taking place in the same building, with the same characters and a little too much backstabbing. There’s a fairly unbelievable romantic subplot that I didn’t like at first. But Sam Benjamin and Kyla Frye as the leads won me over with the magnetism in their scenes together. Sure, the film’s predictable enough to make you scoff at it, but at least the romance element works up to a point.
The Pay Day is Frye’s show from beginning to start and there’s nothing wrong with that. The young actress has enough charisma to drive the film to the end and remain solid as the lead. The story line about the gig wasn’t as relevant in the end as how her outcome modeled her, but fortunately she got what she deserved.
The film seems to be a readaptation of a short film produced in the past by the same team of actors/writers/director. The story seems to vary, but the essence remains. If a few years of rehearsals, pitches and rewrites produced this then it’s great to see The Pay Day as the result of filmmaking growth. That’s something we need more of these days.
One thing I had a beef with: the jazzy score worked, but its use seemed over the top, unnecessary, and distracting. Some scenes felt like a sketch gone long with too many comedy elements and punchlines. Alongside the tiresome jazz notes The Pay Day sometimes felt more amateurish than it is.
The Pay Day (2022)
Directed by: Sam Bradford
Starring: Simon Callow, Ellen Thomas, Rae Lim, Sam Benjamin, Clayton T. Smith, Marcus Onilude, Jacob Anderton, Farrel Hegarty, Dominic Ryan, Nadine Mills, Robert Shannon, Kyla Frye
Screenplay by: Sam Benjamin, Kyla Frye
Cinematography by: Phil Thomas
Film Editing by: Michael Lesley
Art Direction by: Lucie Brooks Butler
Music by: Daisy Coole, Tom Nettleship
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Vertical Entertainment
Release Date: November 11, 2022
Visits: 29
