Left Turn Yield

Movie Information

Left Turn Yield, winner of the Twin Rivers Media Festival, will be presented by Classic Cinema From Around the World at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.
Score:

Genre: Drama
Director: Daniel B. Story
Starring: Jeremy Denzlinger, Bryan Ryan, Pam Green, Allessandria Alamilla, Pablo Bracha
Rated: NR

World Cinema takes a break from their normal fare this week to present the winner of the Twin Rivers Media Festival, Left Turn Yield. The film is a character study about two brothers, Scott (Bryan Ryan) and Kyle (Jeremy Denzlinger). Scott is a responsible restaurateur with a girlfriend, Veronica (Pam Green), while Kyle is mentally challenged, having suffered brain trauma in the car accident that killed their mother 10 years ago.

The crux of the drama lies in Kyle’s fixation on an unaccountably highfalutin, public-access TV personality, Traci (Allessandria Alamilla), who he has become convinced looks like his late mother. None too surprisingly, she’s not interested in his attentions and views him more or less as a stalker. After all, this is a guy who wears Transformers T-shirts and has become stuck in his childhood—plus “You look like my mother” isn’t a top-10 pickup line. When it doesn’t work out with Traci, trouble surfaces when Scott’s girlfriend Veronica kisses Kyle. From there, it becomes a question of various secrets being revealed (including a What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? plot device) and a change in the perception of how things really are.

The film isn’t great, and was obviously made on a very tight budget, making it look more than a little ragged. Also some of the performances are a little stilted, but Ryan and Denzlinger save the day with strong turns as the brothers. Plus, even though the story ends up feeling a bit contrived, it’s still fairly solid, and the dialogue is pleasantly unforced. At only a few minutes over an hour in length, the film knows when to stop, which is also in its favor. It may not set the world on fire, but it’s a good example of a filmmaker, Daniel B. Story, managing to pull off a movie on limited resources.

SHARE
About Ken Hanke
Head film critic for Mountain Xpress from December 2000 until his death in June 2016. Author of books "Ken Russell's Films," "Charlie Chan at the Movies," "A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series," "Tim Burton: An Unauthorized Biography of the Filmmaker."

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

6 thoughts on “Left Turn Yield

  1. Brenda Martin

    I have seen this film & was pleasantly surprised at the quality because it WAS made on a tight budget by 2 newcomers to the filmmaking industry. The producer, Andrew Jordan, was not mentioned. With minor tweaking, I believe this film has great potential. I have paid $8.00 to see “pro” movies that weren’t a 10th as good. I hope to see it on the big screen one day!

  2. mike marston

    I worked on this project with Daniel and Andrew. It was one of my first projects and I had the best time ever working with these two. Jeremy and Pam as well as the rest of the cast were the greatest to work with and to see the quality of the acting brought tears to my eyes watching the scenes. I am forever thankful to have been a part of this production and to have met such wonderful people and HIGHLY TALENTED FILMMAKERS

  3. Michael

    I saw the film at the Gulf Coast Film Festival and I disliked it, beside the fact that the director and producer are douchebags(jerks, the movie was to long and i lost intrested 20 minutes into the film. The cinematography was mediocre and the acting was terrible. I really hope the film never see the light of day again and im outraged that “Left Turn Yield” could win any awards.

  4. alan arkin

    i saw this film,
    and let me say that, first and foremost:

    this isn’t a film.
    this isn’t a movie.

    to label it either is an absolute insult to the purpose and art of filmmaking.
    no, this is a ‘movie’, that happens to have the same characters, same actors, same shittastic(i’m being nice) cinematography, and attempt to be witty dialog.

    the writer and director(despite me seeing either present in this ‘film’) is apparently over his head. he hasn’t got a clue to what film is about, and i’m literally in awe of how these people are still breathing. i mean, in order to make this piece of a shit of a film, you literally have to be possessed by some sort of shit demon. no conscience required.

    fuck this movie. and fuck the makers of this movie. people like this need to understand they can’t make movies, and they shouldn’t make movies.

  5. mike

    Mr. Arkin, You should use your talent and write/produce/edit/distribute a movie. BTW…Do you have a life worth living?

  6. Ken Hanke

    Mr. Arkin, you obviously see very few film festival entries if this one earns this much ire.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.