Director: Thomas Farone
Cast: Anthony Michael Hall, Chris Penn, Elisabeth Rohm, Tony Danza, Frank Whaley, Jamie Harrold, Lily Rabe, Leo Burmester, Federico Castelluccio, Kent King

Tom (Anthony Michael Hall, “The Dead Zone”) owns a successful construction company and seems to have the perfect life: a gorgeous house, plenty of respect, and a beautiful wife who’s just gotten pregnant. When his foreman and one of the framers on a construction site have an argument that gets ugly and Tom winds up in the middle, he finds his perfect life threatened. He’s used to wielding a certain amount of clout and respect, but the more he tries to get the situation under control, the worse things get.

I wanted to like “Aftermath,” and in fact I did — right up until the last scene, a very short sequence that made absolutely no sense and threw the entire logic of the film’s story into question. It was hugely disappointing, because up until then, I had been impressed with how well the film was letting me think I knew what was going on and then surprising me. Having the rug yanked out from under me like that just gets me to thinking about all the other flaws in the film (the female characters exist only to be threatened/raped/etc. to motivate the men, the sheriff who helps Tom is inexplicably defensive about his job, and so on). I always know going into a Cinequest film that this kind of thing is a possibility, but it catches me by surprise every time and always leaves me irritated and wanting to grill the director to find out what their deal is.