The Kill Hole: An adventure about remorse | Far Flungers

Part of the joy of watching first films is that their makers know that they must compensate for small resources with big thrills. Usually, a first film will include a familiar actor -- here it is Billy Zane, playing Drake's mentor -- as well as a few other familiar faces. While Zane has a small role, his group therapy sessions have the honesty of improvisation, recalling similar, compelling conversations among women speaking about race and relationships in "Jungle Fever" and divorcees speaking about men in "Jerry Maguire." Here, we watch soldiers tell their stories, and it is something to follow. But, the point is that first films will take the chances with such scenes, in ways that we rarely see in bigger pictures.

Another joy about many low-budget first films is that they do not follow the normal rules of storytelling. Recall the clever narratives in Spike Lee's "She's Gotta Have It," or Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." More importantly for the viewers, we ourselves do not know if the film will conform to any conventions, so we are pleasantly surprised with every unique twist. The added benefit of "The Kill Hole" is that Webley clearly knows this. As the plot unfolds, he uses every technique -- from misleading dialogue, to music cues from Jason Wells' score, to the carefully chosen camera angles of Eric Billman's cinematography -- to direct our attention toward expected plot turns, only to pull the rug from us and take the film in different directions. James Wetby's editing is that clever.

Of course, with so many twists, it can seem that Webley did not have enough story to fill a movie, so he filled the movie with a few stories. There is the story of multiple soldiers traumatized (or not) by war, the story of a secret company with devious, secret plans (or not), the story of the mysterious Iraqi prisoner, and more. But, it is clear from his craft that he knows exactly what he is presenting. At any moment in this film, especially in its second half, you will not know what will happen in the next ten minutes, even though this film will keep convincing you that you have the whole story figured out, right down to the final click of the final gun.