Alham, a young Lebanese woman struggling to make enough money to stay in America, takes a job moving a package from New York City to Kingston New York. However things go sideways.
While STOCKADE is a good immigrant drama mixed with thriller and is worth your time, it highlights a problem that seems to be haunting many small films and that is taking what could be a better drama (the problem of being an immigrant artist in America) and then trying to spice things up by making them a thriller. The basic story doesn't really need the flavoring.
The problem here is that writer director Eric McGinty doesn't seem to know how to build suspense. Alham is well drawn but everyone around her seems to be there not because they are real characters but simply to be mysterious. In this film mystery is just being in the dark concerning things. Everyone knows more than our heroine and speak and act as if they just came in from John LeCarre novel. While we do want to know what is happening none of it feels genuine. Alham feels like she is being moved around these odd people just to frustrate her.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad film, it's quite good, rather this is a good film that should have been great but got lost in the mystery it was trying to spin.
Worth a look.
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