Written by Brandon Newman and Directed by Clarito Zapanta, “Love & Other Crimes” (2025) is a crime/thriller that has a fair amount of tension for less than 22 minutes. The short, starring Justin P. Slaughter, has a bleakness to it, as well as crime and romance. It feels part underworld detective procedural (think “Drive” or “Training Day”) but it also has this soft, romantic side that feels like it could fit in with any of Richard Linkalter’s offerings. Its strengths are its capable acting and tense-filled stage setting. It falters a bit with its terse ending—as well as limited special effects—but it makes up for it with heart.
“Love & Other Crimes” starts in a familiar way. A man and who we assume is his girlfriend sit on opposite chairs, bound, while blood adorns the man’s face. Before we have a chance to process what’s in front of us, the film cuts to the same man (Slaughter) sitting in a police precinct across from a detective (Don Early) we never see. Slaughter’s character, Noah, is recounting information that was told to him by his roommate, Parker (Jon Meggison) about how a mutual acquaintance/drug dealer Jason (Jordan Nancarrow) killed a bunch of buyers in an ally. The detective is simply collecting information here, and there’s not a lot of emotion involved.
Slaughter and Nancarrow Excel
The story sells itself in two ways: through Slaughter’s utter likability and Nancarrow’s haunting sadism. Both excel here, and it’s a treat to behold. I like the way Slaughter sets up his character with a soft, calm voice that flies contrary to his characters’s large stature and mountainous, imposing beard. He meets the woman he falls in love with in a diner (Jaelyn Sierra), and they get to know each other over a couple of meet cute interactions. Noah’s charming, but not cocky, and he hits as a sympathetic character. Diretor Zapanta is hitting clear “Drive” vibes here with their careful, weighty conversations, and I liked the pair immediately.
Contrary to this, Nancarrow’s Jason is a villain, plain and simple. Of course, this is a crime movie, and there’s nothing inherently unlikable about a drug dealer and shady connections. Jason is hard to read: he has a boyish, friendly charm one minute and the drive and mechanizations of a sociopath the next. At the film’s opening he has one of his goons ram a man’s head through a glass table when he doesn’t have his money, and later coldly blows a wounded hood away for little reason at all. He seems to be wanting to set himself up as a hard, “Scarface”-esque villain, even though he lives in a modest apartment. It’s unclear where this film takes place, although my first guess went to L.A.
A Tour of Crime-Ridden Lives
The best parts of “Love & Other Crimes” is the way Noah takes us through the story of how met his girlfriend and reconnected with his old high school classmate, Parker. There’s a calmness to it and an imperative. Slaughter runs scenes—with Early, with Sierra, etc.—but also narrates. I could see him working in a longer film in this capacity. He has a strong presence which really works to carry the film. Doing some research for this review, I noticed he had also appeared in the indie drama “90 Feet From Home,” which is an amazing film you should check out if you haven’t seen it.
For her own part, Jaelyn Sierra is very good. She is likable, nice, and integral. Shaye came off as a real woman working to take care of herself, and I was reminded of Joy Bryant from “About Last Night” in her interactions here. She works a routine job and has an apartment. Noah is someone she could have a future with if he would only follow the straight and narrow. She doesn’t exactly know what it is he’s into (in truth, he’s innocent, just caught in the middle) but looks out for him all the same. In a way, Parker mirrors this. He’s caught in the middle—however he’s a little more complicit—and you can tell he wants a simpler life. It all leads for some tragic revelations by the short’s cliffhanging close.
A Solid Effort
I liked this movie. It has a familiarity to it and a tense vibe I wasn’t expecting from an indie short. It has a few faults, namely that we don’t really get to know Noah as more than a lonely drifter, and his backstory is not even really hinted at. Alongside him, Nancarrow is vicious and unforgiving, clearly set up as this film’s villain with an unredemptive arc. The short could have benefitted from maybe five more minutes or so to cement some of its characters. Additionally, I would have liked an ending that was a little more sewn up, or one that led purposefully into a sequel or was angling for a full-length version. But at the end of the day, “Love & Other Crimes” does what it’s supposed to. It’s exciting, dramatic, and feels like what I imagine its creators intended. A solid effort, and I’d like to see more from this crew in the future.
