Be careful of where you explore. It’s a jungle out there. Well, mainly it depends on where you’re situated or where you’re heading into. Take ravines, for example. Like the one featured in this feature. Director David Marcoux has a ravine in his backyard and one day he imagined quite the story taking place in his backyard. There’s all kinds of stories that can happen in ravines.
I’m sure a lot of people have grown up in some sort of house close to a wide opening of nature with creeks, ravines, and more, and chances are all that has been replaced with more houses, roads, and maybe even a big ol’ department store. Growing up, my brother was upset we didn’t have something like that for our backyard. I’m kind of relieved given how fast I could’ve gotten lost in one of those, and I’m certainly relieved I haven’t witnessed something disturbing in one anyhow. There was a ravine at my old school but nobody was ever really allowed back there. Even when high school seniors went back there for assignments, there was always the possibility of a cranky elderly woman storming down from her balcony and brandishing a cane.
But best not to get into that, let’s get into the film, Pink Hoodie. It focuses on Brie Brenna (Christa-Marie Waugh) lives with Johnathan (Stephen Huddlestone) in her Uncle Luca’s house, while both her Uncle and mother Bette (Daniella Vinitski Mooney) are presumed to be missing. Just recently, there has been mention of an incident where an unknown man who has been castrated and died deep in the ravine. As the two friends sit and talk over tea, Johnathan brings up a man named Smitty (Michael De Francesca) and they talk about how he interacted with Brie’s mother and the possibility of him swinging by to ask a few questions. Through some backstory clips, we see Brie’s mother once witnessed a takeout session at the ravine, involving a guy who looks like he’s from a local alt-rock band and a blonde girl in a pink hoodie. As the day progresses, Brie and Johnathan hang around in different places and try to work out the story so they can have the same explanation when they’re questioned about the ravine incident. The majority of the film consists of them talking more about who Smitty is, as he tends to the house while Brie is out at work, some kind of letter that Luca sent to Bette, how Bette spent the night over one time at Brie’s, the connection between Bette and Smitty, connections with other neighbours such as Mrs. Blaire (JoAnn Bundock), investigators like Detective Stone (Steve Hasan), a lawyer (Mike D. Smith), and many other people who talked to Brie about her mother and Uncle, a man who disappeared named Hunter Husk, as well as someone named Monique Blackthorne (Sarah Zeversenuke) who died, and are informing Brie to move on in life. In between chats, we get treated to flashback shots that show what both Brie and Bette were going through. Through the flashbacks, we also learn about Monique who had damaged her vocal chords real hard and didn’t speak much, but a visitor broke into her hospital room and stole her pink hoodie, and some more shocking incidents that explained how Monique and Bette were somehow involved with each other. As things slowly unravel, we see all the connections that all these characters and other characters make with each other, and what Brie did as she tried to find out all the details of the incident. One wonders if she can come to terms with all that happened.
It sounds like a lot to follow, and it is. One really has to pay attention, and it’s amazing how the story is pieced together. If it were told another way, it would either make sense in a different manner, or possibly be more confusing. But it’s a great story, and it really freaks you out when you learn all the details. I don’t want to go into too much to prevent complete giveaway, but the concept was well pieced together. Not only that, but the many roles are interesting and finely fleshed out, the dialogue is a mix of both deep and intensifying, with some interesting bits of fun here and there, definitely some drama as well. With the way it all turned out, this was a great movie for me to watch. But perhaps the most fascinating thing is that all the writing, producing, directing, sound recording, and editing were all done by the director himself, David Marcoux. Truly a master of just about anything, David really knows how to carry a whole film and make it really good while doing so.
