Eve Symington’s debut feature film,Brut Force, takes audiences to the California winery scene in athrilling neo-noir moviethat uncovers corruption and a town disturbed by violence. The movie follows Symington’s sister, Lelia Symington, as the investigative reporter Sloane Sawyer. She returns to her hometown after hearing that someone has been harassing vineyard workers, and whips out her detective skills to get to the bottom of it.
Throughout the fast-paced movie, Sloane encounters people of her past, her widowed father, and the alluring Tico Reyes (played byTeen Wolf’s Tyler Posey). Sloane and Tico grow closer together as it is revealed that he shares a similar interest in the crime, however things aren’t as cut-and-dry as one would hope. In this conversation withGame Rant, Eve Symington spoke about her inspirations behind the movie, its main message, and casting Tyler Posey.
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Game Rant: What were some of your inspirations behind the film, as both a writer and a director?
Eve Symington:I was really interested in writing a thriller inthe noir space. I had the genre in my head but wasn’t sure how to get in at first. Then, I heard a podcast about a real incident of a farmworker housing being burned down by arson in California. No one was ever charged. They never found out who did it. I just thought that was such a striking story. It’s so incredibly hypocritical of people to not want to live near the people who are putting food on their tables. It underscores a duality we have in California and in most places, and speaks to the fact that there’s a farmworker shortage in the states when there’s plenty of people who would do the work. I thought that was the perfect way into a noir movie which is all about like the seedy underbelly of something that appears glamorous, wine country appears so glamorous but then has all of these darker sides.
GR: What’s the message that you’re hoping audiences take away from the movie?
Symington:One of the main messages I was hoping to convey is how detrimental generational and cyclical violence can be on people and on communities. When I started writing the film, and delved into the history of winemaking in California, I discovered that the earliest vineyards were run by the California Missions, and they enslaved the Chumash Native people and forced them to work on the vineyards. That’s definitely not a history that’s very talked about, it’s pretty ugly. It’s essential to talk about the past and to own up to it to be able to break that cycle of violence and move forward. The characters all feel the echoes of that violence in different ways, and everybody’s complicated. There are no black and white villains or heroes here. This is what happens when we live in a culture of violence and don’t break the cycle.
GR: Can you talk to me about how the cast came together? The name that caught my eye was Tyler Posey, given that he has an established fanbase throughTeen Wolf. What was it like working with him?
Symington:There are two components to the cast. There’s my family members who I cast, so my sister Lelia Symington is the star, Sloane Sawyer, and I wrote the movie intending her to star in it. I always knew I wanted to work with her. And then Arthur is played by my dad Sidney Symington. I didn’t know I wanted to cast him at first, but then I was like, “He’s perfect for it. Let’s go for it.”
The rest of the cast was put together by the amazing David Guglielmo, who’s my casting director. We had a shortlist of actors we were interested and at the top of that list was Tyler Posey. I was so excited that he was up for working on a little movie. He was so great. He’s definitely a real professional.
GR: Was there something about Tyler Posey that embodied the character of Tico?
Symington:He was willing to audition for us which was very kind of him. He didn’t need to because he has such a body of work already. We had an initial Zoom meeting and really clicked. He connected with the character and the genre. The character of Tico is not a bad person. He’s a good person, but he’s caught up in a web of lies and in some ways, he’s forced to lie. Tyler really captured that duality and even when he’s doing things that seem wrong, you can sense that he’s a good person at heart.
GR: Whose performance are you most excited for viewers to see?
Symington:Both Lelia and Tyler. For Lelia, this is her biggest role that she’s had so far. She really carries the movie so well, and I’m very excited for the world to meet her. Then, with Tyler, it’s nice to see him in a different light, in a very different context. Hopefully his fans will like the film, and also it can introduce him to new audiences who might not be familiar withTeen Wolf.
Brut Forceis now available on VOD.
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