Jasper has Hill as the eponymous hero, a private dick who was just about to retire, when a lady of the night (Sandy Greenwood) calls in his services to find her kidnapped son. No sooner do they get it on, when a couple of baddies show up, take her, and give Jasper a knock upside the head. When he comes to, he realizes he's the only one who can save her and her son, so he loads up on Red Bull and gets after it, going from hooking up with women every place he goes, to getting beaten up every place he goes, but at each stop, he gets clues that bring him closer to the truth. The question is, will there be anything left of him when he finds it?
Like Nate's other films, this was a ton of fun. I like Gweilo best, but this is pretty close. It plays on all the tropes of the Noir-ish thriller, and almost hits you over the head with them, but there's still the right amount of playing it straight that makes it work. A big part of that is all of the women who play opposite Hill, they're all in, and if they weren't, the veneer of playing it straight layered over the goofiness and tongue-in-cheek vibe that makes this whole thing so much fun would break down. I also like how Hill mitigates the low-budget limitations of the film with the goofiness that everyone is playing straight, because it sets Jasper in this surreal world that's just real enough to be believable--and this surreal aspect is furthered by the video game animations of the character in the opening credits. 75 minutes, free on Tubi, and a fun time, it's a perfect combination.
I could say Nate's done it again, but this is actually the oldest of his films that I've reviewed, so the other ones were more doing it again. Either way, I just love how he nails this spoof of hard boiled detective films, but in a way that no one but us as the audience is in on the joke. I also loved that as the hero, he both gets all the girls, but also gets beaten up the whole time. In many cases his attempts to hook up are interrupted by the baddies coming to beat him up, which makes it all the more fun. Because he's directed many films, he has a clear voice and tone in his films, and with this being the fourth one I've seen, I can tell early on that I'm watching a Nathan Hill film. When he was on the podcast, more to discuss his latest film, Alien Love, he did get into this one some too, and mentioned that because he's an actor himself, as a director he's able to get a lot of buy-in from the cast, and that's something I think really comes through in the finished product.
Of those many performances, I think my favorite was Sarah Howett, who played Sara the Boxer. Obviously as a professional in real life, she was really skilled, but the screen presence was solid too, especially for her not having acted as much. It looks like she hasn't done much since this, and what she has done haven't been big parts. One name that comes to mind when seeing her is Mimi Lesseos, who had a nice career in the 90s with a few leading roles in DTV actioners. I don't know how much DTV action is shot in Australia, but I think some of the ones coming out of England right now could use her, especially since she also does stunt work. Another name that stood out was Candice Day as Coffy, who's actually played a few Coffys in her short film career, but on the pod Nate explained that in this instance it was an homage to Pam Grier's Coffy, which Tarantino was also a fan of, and as a fan myself, I thought that was really cool. It was a short, but fun scene.
As you're watching this, you might notice there's a lot of Red Bull. Jasper drinks it a few times, it's conspicuously sitting on a tray of food in a hotel room, and a bar has stacks of it in a cooler. I asked Nate about that, and he said he asked Red Bull about them helping to fund the film with product placement. The product came, he placed it, but the money didn't follow. It's a lesson to filmmakers trying to get funding this way, that if the product comes, the money isn't guaranteed. A film this brings to mind is Deadly Prey with the New York Seltzer product placement. Considering the van that the baddies drive had a crack in the windshield, I wonder if the same thing happened. David Prior or David Winters were like "sorry fellas, we wanted to fix the cracked windshield, but the New York Seltzer money hasn't come yet!" The Red Bull product placement does end up being a fun element to the movie, just too bad the money wasn't there for them.
Finally, speaking of Red Bull, I have a thing for energy drinks. I don't exactly love the energy or the crash after, but I love how they taste. If I go in the store and see a new flavor of Red Bull, or Monster, or Ghost, or whatever, I have to get it, even if I've already had coffee that day. This might sound like a problem, but luckily energy drink companies don't release new flavors that often, so I can go through the refrigerated case at 7-11 and say "oh, I've already tried the Red Bull Winter Edition," or the Monster Guava Paradise, or the Ghost Sour Apple Sour Patch Kids. You might think that all of the Red Bull in this movie would be right up my alley, but it's just regular Red Bull, I've had that however many times before. It's when I see that they have a new flavor that I get geeked up. Just talking about this makes me want to run to 7-11 to see what other flavors they have.
And with that, let's wrap this up. You can currently stream Jasper, along with many of Nathan Hill's other films, on Tubi here in the States. It's well worth it, this is a lot of fun, and streaming free on Tubi is a great way you can support indie at no cost to you. And for the podcast episode where Nathan talks about this and his other films, you can find that in our podcast archives, episode 183. It was a great conversation, and well-worth checking out.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1691862
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