PHANTOM HALO (review)

Review by Joshua Gravel

Warren Emerson is a gambler, a drunk, and father to two sons who have become career petty criminals to pay the rent, cover Warren’s debts, and keep food in the house. Their main grift is having the younger son Samuel perform Shakespeare on the street as the older brother Beckett pick pockets the audience.

When Beckett gets involved with a counterfeiting operation in an attempt to quickly get them out of a loan sharks debt a series of poor decisions and double crosses ensure an unhappy ending for all parties involved.

Phantom Halo is certainly a slick looking professionally made film; there unfortunately just isn’t anything that elevates it above the crowd.

Cinematographer Gavin Kelly did a great job considering that most of the films locations could have easily been generically forgettable urban locales yet the film maintains an overall style that captivates the viewer.

The acting is solid throughout with Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Samuel Emerson being the stand out performance. Although all of the leads were good and there were some great smaller roles by Rebecca Romijn, Gbenga Akinnagbe, and Tobin Bell.

Story wise writer director Antonia Bogdanovich crafted a fairly tight crime drama with Phantom Halo. The only complaint is that the story contains a number of crime story clichés and ultimately the story becomes predictable and less engaging. The comic book character sub-plot and character angle was certainly interesting though and it was enough originality to counteract the heavy handed literary allusions, which seemed a bit forced.

Samuel and Beckett Emerson… really?

Where as I did have a couple issues with Phantom Halo, this is a first time feature and taking that into consideration ,the overall film is a success and works rather well and I would be very interested to see what Antonia Bogdanovich directs next. I would definitely recommend this film to fans of indie crime films. Overall if you are looking for a tight crime story you will probably enjoy Phantom Halo and it is surely well worth the VOD rental.