I had high hopes for Ulterior Motives, the 2024 feature from studio Adam & Eve directed by James Avalon and starring one of my favourite performers, Evelyn Claire. The film was released in two parts, and the studio seemed to put a lot into the film's production and marketing. What could go wrong?
This is the part of the review where I describe the film's plot. However, I genuinely had no clue what was going on. From what I can understand, Seth Gamble plays a private investigator named Mark, who is supposedly investigating Evelyn Claire's character Aurora for her husband, except it was actually Aurora who hired him, and she's fucking Lumi Ray, and Nathan Bronson is hunting down Robby Apples, and everyone's fucking each other and fucking each other over. This film is only for people with big brains.
It also doesn't help that I could barely understand what anyone was saying since the dialogue is often drowned out by the music. For a film where the plot is so important, you'd have thought they'd pay more attention to that.
Ulterior Motives has a film noir aesthetic. At least, that's what they seemed to have been going for. It keeps changing from colour to greyscale, and there are scenes where you can hardly see what's going on because it's so dark. Interesting idea, but poorly executed.
The film has a stellar cast, which includes Queenie Sateen and Scarlett Alexis, and the performances are great. It's just a shame about everything else. I love a good thriller, but this is not one of them. I already avoid any film directed by Seth Gamble. Maybe I should avoid any film he stars in, too.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5
Video purchased from Adam and Eve Plus