VENUS IN CANCER

Venus in Cancer is a film I struggled with pretty much from the first frame, and I take no pleasure in saying that. I'm sure that Director, Christian O'Shaughnessy had good intentions, but the film fails to fully realize much of anything.  The set-up is ideal for a low budget feature with the film focusing on a small group of characters and limited locations, but there's still not enough there. Frankly, it fails to create any real emotional connection to anything happening on screen for the majority of its runtime.

Venus opens with a pretty straight-forward walk and talk between Wes and Bernie, two friends brought together through respective heartbreaks preparing for what could be a very long evening once Wes' old girlfriend comes back into town. Pretty simple set-up, right? Does it do anything to shift from the simplicity and show us something we haven't already seen countless times before? Nope. It barely delivers on an already simple premise.

O'Shaughnessy clearly had a small budget to work with, and I commend him for doing what it took to bring his story to screen, but I can't help but think this would have played much better as a short. There is a certain amount of skill on display, primarily witnessed during the Mezcal Social sequences (Big standouts for me). The back-and-forth between the Social and the Dinner Date is the only time O'Shaughnessy really gives his performers moments to shine, but this only lasts so long. Again, I take no joy in saying this is one of the weakest films I've seen this year.

Venus in Cancer is a lazy film that is neither romantic nor funny. Being as this is billed as a romantic comedy, shouldn't it be at least one of these things? In a medium completely over-saturated with content, O'Shaughnessy really needs to step up his game to avoid getting lost in the shuffle. Again, there is a certain amount of skill on display here, so I'm not ready to write him off as a creative just yet. I'm truly looking forward to seeing what he puts together next. But in the meantime, what I can only assume is a feature-debut, Venus in Cancer totally missed the mark.

2/10
- DJ Ford