Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: YALE [Dances With Films LA - Los Angeles, California - Virtual]

The title in all seriousness might be misleading but that is part of the point. “Yale” [Feature] is simply the name of the protagonist in a way in Kevin Dunn as a absentee dad with an interesting path in life that never is quite brought to bear in the way he thought. Mackenzie Mitchell, a horror novelist dealing with her own troubles being a divorced mother with a tendency towards alcohol must find her dad who abandoned her 30 years before. We find out that there is a lot more to the story. A road trip ensues where she and her father track down other people that have experienced what she has (as an offspring of Yale, albeit in different ways. The MacGuffin revolves in a condition with Mitchell's son that requires a distinct plot mechanism that revolves around a blood type.

Caitlin McKee recently seen on "Bluff City Law" plays Mackenzie with a chip on her shoulder but also a mental block creatively and practically that needs to be undone. She plays the character aloof and focused but also bound by years of hurt. Dunn, who usually doesn’t play really unlikable characters, has a charm as the loathsome Yale who doesn’t apologize. He however does start to take stock of his actions as the film goes on. The eventual resolution however does leave a hole which solves certain things and causes reflection but starves other possibilities that could have happened (even if it was inevitable). Throughout the film, different essences show what MacKenzie both lost and gained in what happened with her father. Rachael Harris plays her Mackenzie's agent trying (like with Joan Wilder in "Romancing The Stone") to open her eyes to a different world but it takes a traumatic experience to open her eyes. Mitchell and her dad are just road-tripping within 200 miles, not the jungles of Colombia but every person’s journey is different. B

By Tim Wassberg