I found it
Lost Angelas (2019): 6 out of 10: Lost Angelas is a 2019 American neo-noir psychological thriller directed by William Wayne. The film follows Jake Hart, a struggling screenwriter portrayed by Wayne himself, who becomes entangled in the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée (Korrina Rico).
The movie is told almost entirely in flashback with Jake being tortured by Angela’s father who is a mob boss. It starts from the first meet cute between Jake and Angela to her leaving him for a crazed British director (Jon Jacobs) who is addicted to coke, woman and manslaughter.
The Good
The Good: Well let’s start out with Jon Jacobs. He plays a crazed British director with an unfortunate homicide habit and honestly; he steals the entire movie. Hell, he steals a couple of films shooting nearby.
Outside of Jon Jacobs fantastic performance for what Lost Angelas is. (A showcase of local talents in the Los Angeles area in a movie about the movie business.) it is certainly not the worst example of this genre I have seen.
The Bad
The Bad: For a movie about the seedy underbelly of Hollywood, it could have used a little more seedy underbelly or at least some more fun debauchery.
All the pieces are in place to go a bit wild, but the movie seems to do so only sporadically. The framing device with the movie being told in flashback really holds it back, as does the overstuffed cast.
I admire Lost Angeles when it takes the gloves off, such as Jon Jacobs character, but alas it makes characters that easily could have been more shaded, such as our heroine Korrina Rico, Lost Angeles makes her too nice even when she clearly is not.
The Ugly
The Ugly: I rarely notice blocking in a film unless something has gone terribly wrong. Something went terribly wrong in Lost Angeles. It is not every scene, mind you. It is as if the director brought his daughter in to direct a few days for bring your daughter to work day and his daughter had not quite managed object permeance yet.
In Conclusion
In Conclusion: You have seen this script before. Guy writes and stars in own film give himself a precious love story with an actress way out of his league. And most of the scenes are filmed at one of the producer’s houses.
As these types of showcases go “Lost Angeles” is actually pretty good. There is some solid acting, decent production values, and the movie does not fear being creative.
Unfortunately, a tighter story with fewer characters and a little more focus would have done wonders. There are enough great ideas in the movie. The problem is there are enough great ideas for two or three movies that seem jammed into this one.
Had they stuck with William Wayne being a punching bag and made his love interest a little more interesting, it would have done wonders. Also, not having every other scene featuring a new character’s one man show might have been helpful as well.
