Romeo's Distress

James (Malchar) is hopelessly in love with the girl of his dreams Jane (Peterson), but thus far that love remains unrequited. However, determined and undeterred by the naysayers, James seeks to prove that love can indeed conquer all, even the sinister machinations of Jane’s suspiciously protective father Dale (Solomon).

At a budget of just north of two-and-a-half thousand dollars and shot very sporadically over fifteen months, the style, swagger and filmmaking savvy on display make Romeo’s Distress probably one of the most impressive no/low budget achievements of its generation. Having since gone on to do more and more equally impressive projects, here in their stellar debut, writer, director and producer Jeff Frumess, along with producer/composer Nick Bohun, pulls out every micro-budget filmmaking trick in the book to fully realise this films potential and prove the gift was there from the very start.

What stands above all else is the film's editing, which is instrumental in setting the film's unique tone of unease and intrigue. Shots are carefully thought out and considered, sets and locations have been ingeniously repurposed, seamlessly spliced, or even built completely from scratch. But despite all of these tricks, none of its wires ever show, and, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s all an endlessly impressive execution of a clear vision.

As a story, itself a surreal gothic arthouse nonconformist thriller, something akin to a marriage between Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare, Romeo’s Distress is as bizarre as it is captivating.  After the film's rather quirky beginnings, including a truly ear-catching ditty called "Cheesecake of Love” (which most will be humming to themselves long after the credits roll), the film soon begins to weave into something of a more typical narrative.

Actually, typical might be the wrong word. After James, following quite the pep talk from his Uncle Elmo (Street), decides to take his destiny into his own hands, the film never once looks to shoot straight with your typical boy hoping to get the girl love story. Instead, it layers itself by exploring a number of themes such as delusion, obsession, pain and isolation to craft a story keeps you on the hook right up until the film’s eye-widening finale, where it then simply drops everything in its audience’s lap to let them pick apart everything they’ve just seen, to figure out where the blurred lines between reality and delusion start and end.

Led by unique and original writing and complemented by a fully-committed and fully-competent cast, Romeo’s Distress is a true showcase of filmmaking ingenuity, a beautifully weird, gothic, micro-budget mega hit, which almost a decade on, is still a great lesson for all wannabe filmmakers that if you truly believe in a film, you can make it.