The filmmakers of the new romantic indie Elephants, actor/producer Luca Malacrino and writer/directorAlex Hanno – both LA based – are sharing an in depth look at their portrayal of toxic modern love, an ambitious project shot in just 12 days under a budget of less than $50,000.
Elephants follows ex-convict Lee Riley (played by Malacrino) as he returns to Los Angeles after a prison stint in hopes of wooing the girlfriend he left behind three years ago, Kate Caldwell (played by Allison Blaize).
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Unfortunately, Kate has moved on and is now a marketing manager keen on hot yoga and green smoothies rather than the nights of binge drinking they were so prone to coaxing one another to partake in. At his pleas though, she allows him stay with her while he looks for a new apartment.
That first night, when asked why Kate never went to visit while Lee was in jail, she admits, “You’re bad for me.” And yet, they soon discover that even three years on, they still make each other laugh – and find it impossible to keep their hands off each other.
What follows is a tumultuous but sweet love story that finds Lee and Kate falling for one another once more, even as their toxic love threatens to tear down the new life Kate has built just as it also prevents Lee from growing up at long last.
The film currently holds a score of 4.8 on Amazon Prime and is fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an audience score of 94%. The Cinema Soloist describes it as: “An emotionally charged tribute to those special relationships when we’re young,” and Cinema Crazed raves, “the performances here border on brilliant at times, as the trio of Luca Malacrino, Allizon Blaize, and Lauren Kelly are just downright impressive to watch.“
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It’s the first feature for Alex and Luca, who met on the set of The Chameleon, a short film written and co-produced by Alex, originally from Massachusetts. At the time, Alex was considering moving on from writing and directing, but after having a conversation with Luca, originally from Wales in the UK, on their last day of filming, he was encouraged to stay in Hollywood and keep his artistic pursuits alive.
From there, the pair started working together on projects such as Between, a sci-fi short, and the TV pilot Served, a half-hour ensemble comedy-drama which won the award for Best Cinematography at ITV Fest.
Above all else, the film was inspired by crossroads Luca and Alex were experiencing in their own romantic lives at the time, leading them to ask the question, how do we know if someone’s right for us or if it’s simply time to move on?
Alex, 27, says: “When coming up with the concept, we noticed a trend amongst our peers, where a lot of single people in the 21st century seem to stay in relationships that stunt their growth as individuals, rather than allow them to flourish.
“We all sacrifice to make a relationship work, however the real question is whether or not the person you’re with is helping you grow into the best version of yourself or hindering you from reaching that potential. Ultimately, we came to believe that nostalgia may be one of the biggest reasons people stick with relationships that aren’t working.”
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The duo then started their production company, The Chameleon Effect, and set out to tackle their biggest project yet – a feature film in the form of Elephants.
Seeking further enlightenment, the duo asked the cast, including Lauren J. Kelly (who plays Kate’s highly-strung, pregnant sister, Sandra) to share their own experiences of love, which would later help to inform the final script.
Before the cameras started rolling however, Luca and Alex made a spur-of-the-moment trip to New Orleans looking to clear their heads and calm their nerves. There, they happened upon a local band, The Roamin’ Jasmine, who – after more than a few beers – gave them the final push they needed to pull the trigger and bring Elephants to life.
The band ultimately ended up scoring the movie with one of their original albums which was made while going through a breakup of a messy relationship, similar to that depicted in the film. An original track “I Remember Everything”, sung by Luca and co-written with LA singer-songwriter, Jackson Englund, was also created for the movie and is now available for streaming and download on iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify.
Eventually, everything came together on a tight, 12-day shoot, prompted by clashing schedules across the Pacific Ocean where Director of Photography, Samuel Lancaster (an Australian-based filmmaker and one of the youngest members of the Australian Cinematographers Society) lived at the time. Samuel was quickly flown to LA for the shoot and the rest plays out on screen today.
Of course, the team came across plenty of obstacles along the road that helped make Elephants an authentic slice-of-life film. “We’re start-up filmmakers so we had to look at what we had from a logistical point of view,” says Luca, 27.
“Locations, budgets, props – we had to be very clever with what we had, investing our own money to make it happen, reaching out to some amazing contacts we’ve worked with in the past.”
Now, Luca and Alex are hoping this beautiful, sensitive and painful account of a passionate but troubled relationship will continue to touch the hearts of viewers for years to come.
Since the release of Elephants, Luca, who ran nightclubs in his hometown of Cardiff before moving to Los Angeles to study acting, has starred in a recurring guest role on one of the most watched shows in the UK, Coronation Street.
His next movie, Babysplitters, with Danny Pudi, has just won the Spirit Award at the Santa Barbara International Festival. Luca also previously appeared on Grey’s Anatomy and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, and joined the cast of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic experimental ‘live cinema’ film project, Distant Vision.
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