Throughout the history of motion pictures there have been many directors who have inspired other directors. Steven Spielberg was inspired by John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. Christopher Nolan found inspiration in the films of Kubrick, Ridley Scott and Terrence Malick. And the list could go on and on. Tollbooth director Ryan Andrew Hooper seems to not only found inspiration in the works of other directors. These directors include Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, the Coen Brothers and Sergio Leone. But he also seems to have set out to make a film that is more of a mish mash of all their styles. He present this instead of creating his own style inspired by theirs. It’s an imposter film that doesn’t have an identity of its own.
Tollbooth is the story of a quiet, unassuming and unnamed man (Michael Smiley) who works a tollbooth and keeps to himself in rural Pembrokeshire in the middle of Wales. The locals like him, but they really know nothing of his past, or even his name. One day while working a man pulls up to the gate and recognizes him as someone who went on the run three decades earlier. He calls his boss, summoning enemies the tollbooth operator had long left behind. The tollbooth operator knows that his enemies will be looking for revenge. So he prepares himself for the series of events he knows will eventually occur.
While Tollbooth is Hooper and writer Matt Redd’s creation, it doesn’t feel original in the least. The odd characters could each be the star of their own comedy show. And they feel like the write created them for individual sketch comedy scenes. It feels like they were thrown together for the sake of making a film, and not because it necessarily works. While they are funny at times on their own, they don’t have a lot of chemistry when working with one another. It’s like someone took characters from several Coen Brothers’ films and thought it would be a great idea to put them all in one place.
The storytelling feels like something out of Guy Ritchie movie, with flashbacks and disjointed scenes that make the narrative hard to follow. Quentin Tarantino is the definite inspiration when it comes to the criminals. And the violent ending is something right out of his book, crossed with with a Leone western. The film itself does have some fun moments however. And the oddball characters do make it interesting to see what happens next. It’s just a shame they aren’t allowed to shine on their own instead of copying things that have been seen on the screen before.
Tollbooth is Hooper’s first feature film, and while he does show his greenness throughout, he shows a lot of promise as well. Inspiration has created some great films over the years by some great directors. But each of those directors created their own unique style and didn’t full out copy what came before. Hooper needs to follow his own road, and do his own thing. When he does, he may find that his work ends up inspiring others as well.
