With the short theatrical run in Arizona for our second feature THE DETECTIVE’S LOVER a success and the online release approaching on July 27th, we present some excerpts from reviews of the film. Follow the links to read the complete articles.

Canadian Cinephile. Read the rest here

“Mills’ visual style is certainly something worth checking out. He knows the streets he shoots on and has an eye for cool-looking destinations, offering us a cougar bar and a jazz club and a rundown motel in frames that sing with dankness, eeriness and sleek jazz cool. The use of black and white is delectable and clever.”

Bill Pierce. Read the rest here

“Mills has always demonstrated a knack for avoiding the tiled roof; stucco sided snoozy-ness of suburban Phoenix, delving instead into the miry, mysterious murkiness the old city offers. “The Detectives Lover” provides a great combination of sight and sound, and the overall look of the film is terrific, as cinematographer Dave Surber remains consistently cognizant that he is shooting the scenes for black and white, and not necessarily in black and white. This film, however, is owned, operated and dominated by the superb sound design/production audio of Mr. James Alire.

Antagony & Ecstasy. Read the rest here

“What matters most, though, is that the thing moves: at less than 90 minutes, it’s of course not very long in the first place, but it’s shocking how briskly it drives through the several turns of the plot even so, and this at least earns Mills all my respect: when too many actual, major filmmakers have forgotten the fine art of telling a story quickly and then getting the hell out, it’s pleasing to encounter a movie so aware of how to do what it needs to in just an hour and a half.”

Hal C F Astell. Read the rest here

“In some ways, The Detective’s Lover, the second feature from Arizona writer/director Travis Mills and Running Wild Films, has much in common with its predecessor, The Big Something. Both are phrased as mysteries, with Humphrey Bogart and Philip Marlowe dropped into dialogue in under ten minutes as overt reference points. Both task a fair sized ensemble cast with playing a wild variety of characters weaving their respective ways in and out of a complex plot. Both are built around a central male lead, not a real detective but someone who stumbles through some sort of investigation anyway that he only believes he understands. Both begin with music to colour our introduction to this lead character who only begins to find any real direction some fifteen to twenty minutes in. Phrased like that, you could almost mistake them for the same movie, but really the tone couldn’t be more different. This time round, we really get a film noir.”