Rent Central Park (2017)

A mixed up night out. - Central Park review by NP

A group of students – Mikey, Leyla, Harold, Felix, Sessa - some of whom are given the briefest of backstories, spend a night at Central Park. They don’t let anyone know that’s where they’re going, of course, because they intend to do three things that every young person does in this kind of film – get stoned, get drunk and indulge in mild sex acts. Here, this trio of pastimes is joined by a fourth essential in such circumstances – when they ‘gotta go pee’ (as happens on a number of occasions), that’s often when the killer strikes.

There’s a dishevelled man who lives in the caves in Central Park. Perhaps we’re meant to believe he’s the killer. There’s another man, who has wrapped his head in tape. He intends our group of noisy youngsters harm – and to the often spaced-out Mikey’s teacher too, who comes along to join the fun. These people spend a lot of time apart yelling – but are never heard by the other party.

Any pacing that might be brought on by the remaining group’s rising panic is undone by the inclusion of two policemen, whose appearances could almost have been spliced in from another production for the most part. They are woefully behind events for the longest time.

This is a mixed bag. Ultimately, the story is confusing, but I like the fact that events occur in and around an identifiable location; it is efficiently acted (Justin A. Davis as Harold is probably my favourite performance), Justin Reinsilber’s direction is quite nice, but the story is without much focus. The characters are not easy to care for, and the antagonist – or antagonists – remain mostly unexplained and equally difficult to invest in. My score is 6 out of 10.