Los Angeles: Glitz, Grit, and Exploitation

Read Time:4 Minute, 48 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Forelock
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Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director(s): Caleb Alexander Smith
Writer(s): Caleb Alexander Smith
Cast: Caleb Alexander Smith, David Krumholtz, Emily Swallow, Jason Wiles, Alimi Ballard, Chloe Oloren
Where to Watch: shown at the 2025 Austin Film Festival

RAVING REVIEW: Caiden (Caleb Alexander Smith) wants to get away, start fresh, be someone better (or at least someone). The city is Los Angeles, full of promise and rough edges. What he doesn’t expect is that the very thing that could elevate him to the next level — his face (and physique) — will drag him into a quagmire of fraud, danger, and identity erosion.

Caiden arrives in L.A. with hopes of being a fitness trainer. He’s earnest, a little wide-eyed, unprotected. That’s when Randy (David Krumholtz) spots him — notices he looks like some big movie-star superhero (in-fiction), Kenreigh Havill. Randy, who already works the impersonation side of Hollywood Boulevard, sees a mark and a possible partner. Caiden donning a knockoff Superman outfit most of the time, doing the hero bit for gigs, photo ops, kids’ parties — whatever pays. But Randy has bigger, darker connections, and the two are drawn into the underworld of celeb scandals, drug lords, and deadly conspiracies.

The core idea is fun and self-aware. Identity, obsession with image, fandom, the lure of quick fame — all these themes are baked into the setup. Caiden is a blank slate; Randy is a hustler; and L.A. works as a haunted carnival of chaos. The film leans into that: the city feels both seductive and predatory.

Krumholtz is the glue that holds the insanity together. He brings charisma, danger, swagger, and a healthy dose of sleaze to Randy. When the story struggles, he often rescues it by sheer presence. His portrayal is slippery, wounded, amusing, and menacing in turns. Without him, the film wouldn’t be the same. Smith is ideal for his role, but is also a caricature of everything that his role demands. Krumholtz helps to add the spice to the entire story.

There are shots of the city that feel alive — neon, shadows, the glint of Hollywood, along with its darker sides — enough to suggest a weightier ambition. The contrast between the fantasy of the costume and the grime of the streets is used well in places. But the film never quite sustains its balance. The tone is all over the place, often within the same scene. Sometimes the movie wants to be a dark crime thriller, other times a satire or ridiculous comedy, and occasionally a melancholy character study. The shifts are jarring. A scene that should land with emotional weight gets undercut by a gag; a joke meant to relieve tension sometimes strips the stakes. Randy offers a surprising amount of depth in his dialogue, while Caiden is as straight-edged as you can get.

Caiden’s arc has several weak points. He’s more reactive than proactive. The film asks us to root for him, but sometimes he feels like a passenger, someone just along for the ride in a role that is meant to be what it is. His transformation is more about being pulled than choosing. That undercuts empathy. The supporting cast around Randy and Caiden often feels sketch-like and sketchy — motivations thin at best, their deepest conflicts feel mechanical. The conspiracy side (celebrity overdoses, drug lords) sometimes feels too big a leap for the world the film had built early on.

Also, FORELOCK leans on metaphor heavily. Identity, masks, mirrors — they’re everywhere. The danger is that the film sometimes screams too loudly what it’s about, instead of letting the audience find the weight. The metaphors work best when they’re subtle, but here they get battered. I don’t want these comments to come off negatively. There’s a lot to enjoy here, but I feel like there could have been so much more. It feels like a story that knew what it wanted to tell but struggled to say it.

When it’s good, it’s interesting, odd, affecting, and genuinely intriguing. The best moments are when Caiden and Randy’s bond cracks — when loyalty, betrayal, and desperation bleed through. The decision points (how far Caiden will go, how much Randy sacrifices) give the film its emotional stakes. Flawed but has heart and ambition. It doesn’t quite pull all its parts together, but the ride is often worth it.

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[photo courtesy of MIDNIGHT CHIMES]

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