Loss Prevention

It feels like a bit of a betrayal when my favourite part of a WLW movie is the men. That’s not what I’m here for! But it would feel like a bigger betrayal to lie to you, my audience. The best part of Loss Prevention are the men. Actor John Wells gives a strong performance as the movie’s main villain. But most of my love is directed at pro-wrestler, Al Snow who plays the lead’s father. Snow’s muscular forearms and calm, assured energy were the best part of this movie. His character is one of the best father figures in the WLW movie pantheon. I would like to issue a formal invitation to Al Snow. If he can find time in amongst teaching and mentoring the new generation of wrestlers, please co-star in another LGBT film, Al. We’d be happy to have you.

Messy lesbian Nik works at her father, Murphy’s dive bar. The bar is populated by a cast of wacky characters who are largely not important. On a particularly busy evening, Nik is distracted by a beautiful, mysterious woman named Brooke. But while Nik is shooting her shot, something else is amiss. A dangerous man named Boland and his several armed henchman show up for reasons I can only described as business-related. Somehow, Nik and Murphy find themselves caught in the middle of dangerous and ridiculous corporate espionage.

Loss Prevention suffers the problem so many action comedies do. It fails to be both genres at once. Ultimately, Loss Prevention skews comedy, which is probably smart. However, Loss Prevention’s comedy stylings are very sitcom-esque. Over the top characters and ridiculous scenarios that only play out briefly before hitting an obvious punchline. Especially early on, the film is obnoxious. The amount of caricatures in that dive bar made me eagerly await the introduction of action as hopefully, it meant some of them would die.

Because of all those over the top characters, Al Snow really stands out. Dude was a pro-wrestler in the 90’s. Doing some sitcom-style dad jokes is nothing compared to that time where a guy cooked and fed him his pet dog as the basis for a wrestling feud. The calm, assured nature he brings to all of his lines is a welcome contrast to many of the other actors who do too much to sell the bad dialogue. Plus, it’s great to see him be so loving and supportive of his fail lesbian daughter. I imagine that for people attracted to men, Snow might be a “daddy.” But I don’t have this perspective and the movie doesn’t either. I see Al Snow and I think ah, that’s a Father. That’s a man who would pick me up from soccer practice and congratulate me on my report card.

Despite having a wrestler in the cast, the action of Loss Prevention isn’t particularly strong. Quite a lot of the violence in the film is gun-based. Brooke gets some scenes of her doing cool, kickass woman stuff, which is usually punctuated by the film referencing Terminator or Black Widow. Don’t come into this movie expecting John Wick. Or even one of those action comedies that one half of the John Wick directorial team keeps pumping out. This is a crime movie, more than an action one. Though more than anything, it is a comedy. The fact that the business dealings in this film lead to so much gun violence is patently absurd. Almost like it’s a joke or something.

Loss Prevention got a few laughs out of me and put me in a good mood. I enjoyed seeing a professional wrestler depict one of the best fathers in lesbian cinema. But ultimately, I don’t think this is quite good enough to get the passing grade. The dialogue is often weak and the film does sometimes use comedy as an excuse to be lazy with its plotting. Also, the onscreen visuals the film uses for things like showing a date, location or someone’s texts and emails are appallingly bad. On the one hand, it’s probably a good sign that the worst thing about this movie was a minor stylistic choice. On the other hand, it’s a bad sign that they’re so bad I had to point out how bad they are. Still, I had fun with the film, even if part of my fun was in the movie’s weaknesses.

Overall rating: 4.9/10

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