5lbs of Pressure
March 4th, 2024
MOVIE: 5LBS OF PRESSURE
STARRING: LUKE EVANS, ALEX PETTYFER, RORY CULKIN, STEPHANIE LEONIDAS
DIRECTED BY: PHIL ALLOCCO
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 2 ½ STARS (Out of 4)
The redemption story is always a good place to start. I always think of Rocky, how Sylvester Stallone had the guts to not allow his character to be the hero but to be the person that proved they belonged. In Phil Allocco’s 5lbs of Pressure, the story is about redemption, but it’s also not afraid to make it an uphill climb. The path in life is often difficult and although it’s not a perfect film by any stretch, 5lbs of Pressure has an interesting message to say about finding forgiveness.
The person looking for redemption is Adam (Luke Evans), an ex-con, sober, and finally finishing his last month of probation. He wants to get back into the good graces of his son Jimmy (Rudy Pankow) and ex-girlfriend Donna (Stephanie Leonidas). For Adam he’s been gone too long, making his path to forgiveness difficult, and when Eli (Zac Adams), the brother of the man he murdered, hears that Adam is back around, he and his drug dealing friends Mike (Rory Culkin) and Leff (Alex Pettyfer) hope to get their revenge. What begins in motion is a slowly climbing march to a collection of various characters, each one struggling with life in their way, merging to the middle for an ugly showdown.
As far as the story goes, there’s not a large amount of originality in 5lbs of Pressure, but what I appreciated was that not every character is a stereotype. Allocco views each person with a human lens, a duality that exists no matter what their dirty business is. A character such as Leff arrives as the tough guy, often being ugly towards Mike. But when a conversation between the two characters digs into why Leff acts as he does, we see the emotions crack. Even in Evans’ performance, it’s the honest approach toward forgiveness that we know will never arrive, which has us worried that a relapse is possible. Even as the staging can be wooden, the characters are real, and that elevates the material on the flimsiest of sets.
It’s the low-budget and off-kilter marketing that makes 5lbs of Pressure fail to come together. The scenes are often darkly lit or back lot sets being used to make Manchester, UK look like New York. Sadly, that is the makeup of movies on this level. The writing from Allocco isn’t in a rush to turn this into a shoot ’em-up action story, which is where the marketing goes wrong, as all posters or trailers are pushing something different. And yet, I still saw enough of the power in the story to feel something, as Adam begins to establish himself, and stay out of trouble, or at least until the trouble finds him.
In the hands of a more established director or a greater production company, 5lbs of Pressure has a different title, and cinematography that elevates it. What it settles for is mediocrity masked by strong performances from Pettyfer, Culkin, and Evans. They each play various versions of men that fight back against their toxic traits. Sure it’s about drug dealers, revenge, and violence, but there is more depth lingering beneath the surface. They just needed to apply more pressure.
5LBS OF PRESSURE IS PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS, AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL, AND ON DEMAND ON FRIDAY MARCH 8TH, 2024.
2 ½ STARS
Written by: Leo Brady
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