Featured Movie Review: Dry Spell

April 11, 2014

Dry Spell - Buy from Amazon

Dry Spell is an ultra-low budget film from the same filmmaker that brought us Raymond Did It. This film cost a mere $22,000 to make. It could have cost ten times that and still be considered low budget. So one has to have lowered expectations when it comes to the technical presentation. But on the other hand, if the writing is good, the film should still be entertaining, regardless of the production budget. Is that the case?

The Movie

The film begins with us meeting Sasha and her roommate, Lacey, actually, we first meet Lacey's most recent conquest, a buffed man, whose name escapes her. Sasha is currently dealing with a divorce, but Lacey isn't being very supportive for two reasons. Firstly, Sasha is divorcing Kyle, who is Lacey's brother. Secondly, they are still friends and go out to lunch once a week. Likewise, Kyle's roommate, Trey, is not happy with this situation, because they should be bonding by insulting their exes and going to strip clubs. He's more upset with Sasha than Kyle is, especially since she took their couch in the divorce.

Sasha and Kyle have their weekly lunch, and it goes well, for the most part. There are some awkward moments when Sasha asks about Kyle's sex life and he does get annoyed when Sasha brings up the divorce papers, which Kyle has yet to sign. She does have a legitimate reason to bring it up. She's ready to get back into the dating game and she doesn't want to be technically married while hooking up with another guy. And in fact, she has a date tonight.

Actually, it's a double-date Sasha roped Lacey into being her safety net on this double-date, just in case things don't go well. Things go really well for Sasha, so much so that she wants to get the "double" part of the date over and head to his place. However, when the two try to have sex, Sasha can't get ready. Later she discusses the issue with Lacey, and Lacey suggests, between laughing at Sasha, that perhaps she can't perform because she's guilty about dating guys while Kyle is all alone. Sasha latches onto this hypothesis. If she is ever to have sex again, she needs to get Kyle laid.

So they next time they have their weekly lunch, Sasha brings up this hypothesis, to which Kyle laughs. He thinks this is all in Sasha's head and it's her ego that thinks he hasn't gotten over her. Kyle tries to convince Sasha that he doesn't need help, by getting a lady's number while Sasha watches. However, that's not enough for her. She demands Kyle let her set him up and not just set him, but put him on a dating website. At first he refuses, but she makes him an offer he can't refuse. Do this and she will give him back his couch.

From this point, we see Kyle going on blind dates that don't work out while Sasha gets more and more desperate to make sure her plan works out. However, the details are too deep into spoiler territory to discuss.

Like I already said, the film cost just $22,000 to make, so keep your expectations on the technical aspects in check. There are HD cameras that cost more than that. You obviously can't build sets for that price and there are some scenes that are shot a little awkwardly, because most homes are not set up to make filming easy. Fortunately, the writing isn't affected by the low budget and it is very good. Granted, it is a romantic comedy, there are some plot points that you know will happen. You know right away that Sasha's plan to hook up Kyle so she can have guilt-free sex is going to fail, but it is a fun trip watching how it fails. (It isn't completely predictable, but I again can't get into details without spoiling the movie.) Kyle Hoskins and Suzi Lorraine do have good chemistry together, as so Suzi and Elizabeth-Sawyer Amanda, who plays Lacey. While the movie is funny, there are some more dramatic scenes and the actors do a good job there as well. Many of the date scenes are funny, although some are a little over-the-top.

The Verdict

Dry Spell is a fun ultra-low budget romantic comedy that has a good writer, good cast, and doesn't fall for too many of the genre clichés. Check it out on Video on Demand.


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Filed under: Video Review, Kyle Hoskins, Travis Legge, Suzi Lorraine, Amanda-Elizabeth Sawyer