Cinefantastique Online

20 YEARS AFTER

Something of an oddity. Think thrift shop CHILDREN OF MEN: You’ve got a post-nuclear dystopia; a pregnant woman (Azura Skye) trying to elude pursuers out to claim her baby; and various, cave-dwelling survivors striving to protect her, including a soulful pirate radio DJ (Joshua Leonard), and Danny Glover (oops, sorry… that was BLINDNESS; Reg E. Cathey serves as the Glover analog here).

Director Jim Torres (who also co-scripted) bases his film on a stage play, which on the plus side means that there’s a moodiness to the proceedings that’s not at all unpleasant, while the minuses include forsaking coherent character motivation for stylistic conceits that likely played better in the theatre (i.e. what’s the deal with all those ventriloquist dummies?). 20 YEARS AFTER doesn’t fully close the deal — for all the characters’ roamings (and it’s a credit to Torres that the film has both an action level and a variety of settings that belie its theatrical roots), you wind up feeling as if the story hasn’t taken you anywhere. But it’s an intriguing, and mostly entertaining, attempt at bringing some intelligence and originality to the ol’ post-apocalyptic scenario, and that’s not to be ignored.

And, anyway, it handles its cave environs better than ROBOT MONSTER ever did.

20 YEARS AFTER (MTI Home Video, 2008; 95 mins.) Directed by Jim Torres. Cast: Joshua Leonard, Azura Skye, Diane Salinger, Reg E. Cathey.