Lowlife | What to Watch

Blending deadpan black comedy, savagely gory violence and a surprising amount of heart, this very offbeat crime thriller has cult movie written all over it

Blending deadpan black comedy, savagely gory violence and a surprising amount of heart, this very offbeat crime thriller has cult movie written all over it.

The setting is a seedy patch of Los Angeles, where a motley bunch of ne'er-do-wells and worse get slapped together by crime and fate.

There's a mask-wearing Mexican wrestler prone to blackout rages; a former junkie motel owner who gave up her daughter for adoption; a dim-witted ex-con with a full-face swastika tattoo; and a truly vicious crime boss who runs a sex trafficking and organ-harvesting ring from the basement of a taco shack.

The plot that links them features all manner of bizarre twists and time shifts.

Remarkably, first-time director Ryan Prows and his colleagues in LA-based comedy collective Tomm Fondle pull the whole thing off.