Blood, Guts, Bullets, & Octane

A Phoenix pick

The rare post-Tarantino men-with-guns indie that works on its own terms, this hyperactive B-movie has the title selling points in abundance but also a lot of wit and flair. And as the $7000 cheapie that Village Voice critic Amy Taubin chose to rescue from the ghetto of New York's Independent Feature Film Market a year ago, it proves most worthy of her advocacy. Call it a cross between Used Cars and El Mariachi, as a pair of oily auto salesmen (Joe Carnahan, Dan Leis) agree to keep a rival broker's 1963 Pontiac LeMans convertible -- God only knows where it's been -- on their lemon lot in trade for "fat cash." Needless to say, things get squirrelly in a hurry. In addition to playing the scummier salesman of the two, director-actor-editor Carnahan satirically mixes film speeds and stocks like a cut-rate Oliver Stone. And his rhythmic tough-guy dialogue is no less playfully visceral. "It's a hit-and-run world," says one character. "Savage, swallow-you-whole, spit-out-the-bones." Appropriate to this pulpy view of the world, Carnahan's go-for-broke visual style keeps Blood, Guts, Bullets & Octane running fast, cheap, and out of control from start to silly finish. Screens at the Copley Place Friday, September 18 at 7:45 and 9:45 p.m. and Saturday, September 19 at 12:15, 3:45, and 5:45 p.m.

-- Rob Nelson

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Film Festival Feature Films

| The Witman Boys | The Cruise | Confessions of a Sexist Pig | Melting Pot | Pleasantville | Clay Pigeons | Waking Ned Devine | Blood, Guts, Bullets, & Octane | My Name is Joe | Six Ways to Sunday | The Theory of Flight | A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries | Down in the Delta | Children of Heaven | I Married a Strange Person | 20 Dates | Bandits |

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More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times

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