There are so many ways
one can purchase the proverbial farm nowadays - from mailing a
letter on the wrong day, to catching the dreaded viral death spore
form a fling, to becoming the hapless but meticulously-selected
victim of a serial killer.
In Michael DiPaolo's latest feature Transgression, television
reporter Mary Selby finds the killer of some local prostitutes
and attempts to get inside his head. The only problem is, once
she's in, she can't get out.
A potentially hack premise? In the hands of an amateur, yes,
but this Michael DiPaolo we're talkin' about her. Who the hell
is Michael DiPaolo? I'll tell you.
Over the last nine years, writer/director DiPaolo has videotaped
more than 1500 confessions under the employment of the Brooklyn
District Attorney's Office, and Transgression is a fictionalized
adaptation of some of those confessionals. Such experience is
more than enough by any standard to qualify him as an authority
on psychopaths and other mental defectives.
Transgression is his first feature length production(note:
on film). DiPaolo has been producing gritty reality-based video
programs for some time, as well. His first, Brutal Ardor, (1986),
tells the story of a battered wife who, after countless years
of abuse dispatches the piece of crap who has degraded her for
so long. Bought & Sold (1988) , follows a sexually-tormented
runaway to her death in the festering megalopolis of New York
City. Requiem for a Whore (1989) recounts the last day in the
life of a seemingly ordinary street walker. So you see, he's
got experience, and he's got experience.
The film traces Mary Selby's descent into madness and her road
to redemption (which ends with her eventual execution). While
pursuing the story, she is kidnapped by the killer and cruelly
mind-fucked into a similar state of derangement by him (Patty
Hearst Syndrome).
The cast of Transgression is so natural that one might think
that the film was a hidden-camera documentary. Julio Rodriguez
as Mary's boyfriend, Detective Ron Reyes, delivers an exceptionally
strong performance (his death scene was especially harrowing).
Molly Jackson's Mary is as eerie and likable as any Dr. Lecter
making me think that if I had to die by the hand of another,
I'd like it to be at the hands of a woman like her because at
least I'd have a chance of getting laid before getting laid-out.
But I digress...
DiPaolo's skill as a storyteller is as keen as his skill as
a filmmaker. Transgression was shot in twelve days and was only
six months from conception to completion. Also for a 16mm production
(and a debut 16mm production at that) it looks surprisingly
professional. Don't be surprised if you find this little gem
gracing the shelves of your local viddy oasis (request it if
it's not). If crap like Sorority House Massacre II and Ghoulies
IV can get made and distributed, anything can (I have treatments
for Hello Larry!: The Movie and Herbie Goes to Auschwitz, if
anyone's interested).