CASH ONLY
Nickname Projects, Bardha Productions
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya
Grade: B+
Director: Malik Bader
Written by: Nickola Shreli
Cast: Nickola Shreli, Stivi Paskoski, Danijela Stajnfeld
Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/6/16
Opens: May 13, 2016
In today’s America too many people are going down a treacherous path of debt. One debt leads to another until a poor guy just can’t get clear even when he begins accumulating the bucks by stealth or honest work. Once in debt, the burden increases as banks—and loan sharks—charge burdensome interest on borrowers. And in a Detroit neighborhood dominated by Albanian-Americans, if you’re in hock in the section covered by Malik Bader’s movie, don’t expect to be treated with anything resembling noblesse oblige. Remember that Albanians in their home country put a big emphasis on revenge against their enemies and on the families of their foes as well.
Nickola Shreli (Elvis Martini) anchors the film as both the principal actor and screenwriter. As a landlord to deadbeats, he’s a flawed but basically decent fellow, but because of his flexibility with rent, he is faced by mounting debts. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. His wife having died in an accident two years earlier, he plays single dad to his young daughter, but a small band of vicious criminals think nothing of kidnapping the poor lass and ordering a payment that Elvis can ill afford, particularly given his debt of $10,000 to a loan shark. Enraged that the feckless tenants seem to care little that Elvis is treating them fairly, the landlord changes his attitude, locks one woman out of her apartment (feeding her 12-year-old boy who watches Elvis seizing furniture), and takes off with some bags of stolen money. This is not the best thing to do when you’re dealing with Eastern European bad guys.
In concluding scenes “Cash Only” knocks out one of the most sadistic acts of violence I’ve seen in a gangster movie, the extended scene made credible by Shreli’s altogether believable performance of a guy trying to get by in a doomed city of that itself is facing foreclosure.
Do yourself a favor. Don’t hang out with guys who chain-smoke weed, and if you own property for lease, don’t deal with people who can’t be relied on to pay the rent. Banks learned a lesson in 2008 handing out mortgages to people who obviously could not meet the payments. Nickola Shreli should be particularly commended for his gritty screenwriting debut and his ferocious performance as a man of Albanian heritage who never had a chance to live the American Dream.
Unrated. 88 minutes. © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – B+
Acting – A-
Technical – B
Overall – B+
