The gritty life of LA police comes through in the short Boot.
Review by Matt Cummings
In Director Brian L. Tan's short Boot, a bitter and burned-out LA police sergeant (Graham Clarke) is on his last assignment, the victim of serving years on the street, when he takes on a young recruit (John Redlinger) who's committed to making a difference. But when the two are engaged in a fire fight, one must make the ultimate sacrifice, leaving the other to share the bad news with their senile and abusive father (Richard Johnson).
Tan shoots a competent camera, breathing life into the short with a dark noir edge. He keeps the action tightly focused on his leads, giving an extra edge to an argument between the two cops. When the action starts, Tan lets that run free as well. It's not viseral like Antoine Fuqua's Training Day or Olympus Has Fallen, but it still works. Clarke and Johnson have good chemistry, while Redlinger plays the naive kid cop ala Vince Romano in TJ Hooker. But as a short, Boot succeeds due to its somewhat surprise of an ending, which I won't share here.
Add in a darkly resonant soundtrack by Composer Tony Fiala, and you have a serviceable short that expands Tan's growing resume.
Boot is Not Rated and has a runtime of 22 minutes.
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