Final Recovery is about a treatment center run by a woman named Nanny Lou (Charlene Tilton), who, on the surface seems like she really cares for her patients, but there's something nefarious underneath all that. It looks like she's running a racket where she has crooked cops bring in people struggling with addiction so she can bilk the state for their care, and keep them pumped full of drugs so they never recover. And should her patients get wise to what she's up to, she's got a bone saw in a back room that she can use to make sure they disappear. One of these patients, Rodney (Jasper Cole), has been stuck in this cycle for years, but when a new patient, Dustin (Damien Chinappi) comes in, Rodney thinks he may have someone who can help him bring Nanny Lou to justice. The problem is, Nanny Lou has been at this for a long time, and will be hard to stop.
This is another from Wallen that really worked for me. Like the previous two we've reviewed, Beneath Us All and Ash and Bone, he does a great job of mixing genre film with his themes of how society values some people over others, and that's especially true about people struggling with addiction. One area where this one doesn't work as well as those other two though, is I wasn't sure whose story was supposed to be the focus, Rodney's, Dustin's, or Nanny Lou's. Even Dustin's sister Cindy (Kaiti Wallen) felt like she could've been the focus from how she's introduced to us, where she's questioning to Nanny Lou on whether her brother should even be in the facility, I thought the story may have been moving in the direction of following her advocating for her brother and trying to get help for him through official channels on the outside, but it never goes there after that initial conversation with Nanny Lou. The other thing was the fact that the film was set in Flint, MI, and I felt like they could've done more to make that a bigger part of the story. When I look at what worked though, it starts with Tilton, who was absolutely chilling. Even without the genre film elements, had this just been a Behind the Bastards-style biopic about someone using people struggling with addiction to bilk the state and insurance companies, she still would've been scary. I also liked how Cole and Chinappi gave us grounded, human characters who were struggling with addiction. I think without those performances, Tilton's alone would've given us a fun horror film, but Wallen's message wouldn't have come through, and that message gives the film a little bit more. Overall, I really enjoyed this, and with it available on Tubi, you should definitely check it out.
We're now at five of Wallen's directed films here on the site (he has an additional tag as an actor in Realm of Shadows), which puts him up there among the most for an indie director. The thing about his work that resonates with me is that theme that runs through all his work I've seen so far, not simply that there are haves and have-nots, but even harsher, that society deems some lives worth more than others, and the way he marries genre film with giving a voice to people whom society deems less worthy is something I really appreciate, and something I think he nails here in exploring the way society deals with, as opposed to helps, people battling addiction, while still maintaining the film's horror genre credentials. What people battling addiction have to go through to get help is probably a real life horror film in and of itself, but will people watch that as much as they'd watch a horror film about a scary woman in tacky Christmas sweaters dismembering people in a back room? Probably not, but with Wallen we get the message wrapped in a fun horror movie, and he does both effectively.
That scary woman in tacky Christmas sweaters is played by none other than Charlene Tilton. We've actually seen her here before in the Jeff Wincott PM flick Deadly Bet, but I imagine most Americans my age know her from our moms watching Dallas on a Friday night. When an indie director like Wallen finds out they can get a name like Tilton, they're hoping for a great performance beyond the help that their name on the tin means for sales and streams, but what Tilton gives us is another level. I don't know how anyone who did a scene with her was able to interact with her offset afterwards, I think I'd be too afraid to. What her performance does is turns the entire facility into a kind of haunted house, like an old Vincent Price movie, her ominous presence looms over everything. In that way, it was smart that Wallen included the element of Rodney and Dustin leaving the facility to work in Cindy's store, because we as an audience needed a break from the tension in Tilton's performance too.
As I mentioned above, this took place in Flint, MI, and was filmed on location there as well. It's a city that's been through a lot, as far back as 1989 Michael Moore made his famous documentary Roger and Me about GM closing a plant there, which left 35,000 people out of work. Since then, things have only gotten worse, leading up to the Republican government in Michigan's takeover of the city, who, in an attempt to cut costs, changed the city's water supply over to a contaminated river, making many residents sick and leaving them without clean drinking water for years. Going back even further in American history though, Flint was one of the birthplaces of what would become the middle class in this country, union workers receiving a wage that allowed them to live a dignified existence, something that spread throughout the US in the middle of the 20th century, only to be slowly dismantled in the 80s and 90s, and forgotten in the 21st century. And I think this is where, for me, if I hear a film is set in Flint, I want a little more of that history and legacy embedded in the story, and made me wish we had a little more of that here.
Finally, we have the question of whether or not this is a Christmas movie. You know me, I'm more open to having as many films under that banner as possible, but what's unique here is Wallen uses the fun and kitsch of Christmas as a juxtaposition to the horrors happening around everyone. We have Christmas songs, Christmas decorations, and Nanny Lou's tacky sweaters, while Nanny Lou is having someone dismembered, or someone else is dying of an overdose. It's a use of Christmas that I'm not sure I've seen before, because Christmas doesn't really play a part in the film, like no one's exchanging gifts or having a Christmas party. Another aspect of Christmas is the way we use it as a society to bring family members from far away together to celebrate in order to reaffirm familial bonds. For many people struggling with addiction, they've been estranged from family members, which means Christmas can lead to more feelings of isolation, which could beget more using. Unless I missed it, that never really comes into play here, like we don't hear Cindy making plans for her and Dustin, or Rodney's ex-wife making plans for her and their daughter without him, or even just what that would feel like to be in a facility like that for the holidays. Maybe something to explore in a "Final Recovery 2".
And with that, let's wrap this up. You can currently get this on Tubi or Plex, which I think makes it a fun choice for your Christmas in July film. This is another solid outing from Wallen and company, I can't wait to see what's next!
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33727216
And if you haven't yet, check out my newest book, Nadia and Aidan, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!.jpg)
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