A few words on The Searches (2013) Latin Beat

Jose Luis Valle's second film is the dual story of a man trying to retrieve a stolen wallet with a picture of his dead daughter in it and a woman trying to make sense of death of her husband. Its a beautiful looking black and white film that you'll end up talking about more for its budget then the film.

Made for $1500 in seven days this film looks amazing. It looks so good that while I was watching it all I could think was this really couldn't have been made for so little money it looks great. Actually for most of the first third of the film I was convinced that this film was going to be a great calling card for micro-budgeted films. I was caught up in the action, I was loving the images...and then as time went on I began to fidget. It was clear why the film cost so little and why they made the film so quickly. There are long takes of nothing, cars drive, we see objects in houses...and I lost my patience. I tuned out.

Had this been an hour long film this would have been great. Even at a very brief 77 minutes this film is too long.

The Searches plays July 19 and 20. For information and tickets check the Latin Beat website