CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Film Review: Inconsistent ‘Do Not Disturb’ Features Revolving Door of Quality
Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The beautiful Mali Elfman, daughter of the great composer Danny Elfman, has written and produced (and co-stars in) a unique piece of work called “Do Not Disturb,” a collection of interconnected short films that chronicles the bizarre happenings in a Los Angeles hotel room and is now available On Demand. What goes on behind closed doors? If the walls of even one room could talk, the stories they would tell would be great fodder for filmmaking. “Do Not Disturb” is too inconsistent to recommend completely but features a few interesting elements and bodes well for a promising filmmaker.
Not unlike “Four Rooms,” “Do Not Disturb” links together a series of short films through one hotel worker, an unnamed maid effectively played by Diva Zappa (the youngest daughter of the legendary Frank). The five vignettes are directed by different filmmakers, including Eric Balfour (an actor well-known for his work on “24” and “Six Feet Under”) and Laura Henry. Each short has a different energy but they all take place in the same space and seek to document the sometimes-crazy behavior that happens when the hotel curtains are closed.
Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Do Not Disturb” in our reviews section. |
The first short, “Duccio’s Madonna,” was directed by Balfour and opens with a bald man (Harris Goldberg) ordering a prostitute (through a pretty-funny bit with an automated system on the other end of the phone). He is disappointed when he gets a brunette instead of a blonde, but, of course, it’s not traditional sex he’s looking for. When he said “kinky roleplaying” into the phone, he wasn’t kidding. This is more like therapy than prostitution. Goldberg is good and Balfour actually shows an interesting energy as a director, but the piece ends too abruptly.
And it doesn’t help that it moves on too easily the least-successful chunk of the film in Petro Papahadjopoloulos’ “Rocketman,” which stars Balfour as a recently-returned astronaut who may be going crazy. With some really horrendous special effects (every indie filmmaker’s motto needs to include something like “if you can’t afford it, don’t do it”) and bizarre dialogue, this is the only short that I would say is irredeemably bad.
Do Not Disturb
Photo credit: Mali Elfman Productions