21 | March | 2019 | Movie Reviews 101

Director: Richard Anthony Dunford

Writer: Richard Anthony Dunford (Screenplay)

Starring: Karl Kennedy-Williams, Judson Vaughan, Julie Rose Smith, Paul Coster, Faith Elizabeth, Cathy Conneff, Bhasker Patel

Plot: Two ambitious detectives stakeout a potential drug deal.

Runtime: 1 Hour 27 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Gritty Police Drama

Story: Dragonflies Only Live for 24 Hours starts as we meet everyday police officers Frankie Mills (Kennedy-Williams) and Parker Lyle (Vaughan) who have their own personal problems and are stuck dealing with petty crimes.

After the two miss out on a detective promotion, which they both needed for financial reasons, they decide to team up to create their own business, using their connections from the force to make the money they believe they deserve.

Thoughts on Dragonflies Only Live for 24 Minutes

Characters – Frankie Mills is the rougher of the two police officers, he keeps himself to himself in his personal life, he has a shady past which would see him struggle to get on the force, but he always turns up for work, helps the victims. Once they miss out, he will turn to the more violent side of the crimes they are committing. Parker is the married father with a drinking problem, he has a clean past, he will do the sneakier of the job for the two officers, even if his drinking problem could become the downfall of their plan. Brooke is the wife of Parker that has seen the problems in his life, but someone he can’t talk to about them. Hyde is the captain that has overlooked the two officers in the first place, before needing to turn to them.

Performances – Karl Kennedy-Williams and Judson Vaughan both give strong performances of police officers that are pushed over the limit of the run of the mill system, they show us how they must reluctantly deal with crimes on the small scale, while showing their ambition to become more. The supporting cast do a strong job through the film.

Story – The story follows two run of the mill police officers that get tired of being over looked and turn to the life of crime to get what they believe they deserve. This does show the simple routine careers the police officers must follow dealing with petty crimes, trying to fill out the paperwork trying to get the promotion they believe they deserve and worked hard enough to receive, it shows the limits they have reached in this career. We get to see how they start using the laws to get what they want and need along with the path this will send them down, one they shouldn’t be able to recover from. We get to see how the friendship between the two is used to make this happen and how much it will be pushed to the limits. We could have seen more from their criminal activities, but otherwise this can show how turning to crime isn’t going to be a smart idea.

Crime – The crime side of the film comes from how the two police officers turn to the life of crime to get what they want, it sees how they will go through steps that become more serious as they get deeper.

Settings – The settings show us how the everyday life can have small crimes in and how the police can deal with small crimes in the right way.

Scene of the Movie – Kidnapping gnomes.