5lbs of Pressure

                 Growing up in the suburbs, I will never know the idea of a neighborhood. Sure, I had neighbors, but when I leave, I am gone, with no reason ever to come back. So there is a sort of jealousy when I watch movies where people are in their “neighborhoods”. However, for whatever sense of togetherness it brings, there is a whole lot of baggage that goes with it as well. For example, the perception of what you see now and of course old ways. Phil Allocco’s new film 5lbs of Pressure does a good job of leaning into this type of familiarity.

After spending some years behind bars for murder, Adam (Luke Evans) is ready to go back home. His return, though, is not a happy time for most, as his ex-wife Donna (Stephanie Leonidas) and the family of the guy he murdered are not too thrilled with his release. All Adam wants to do is meet his son Jimmy (Rudy Pankow) and just stay out of trouble. While Adam wants to stay clean, his neighborhood is far from it, and a lot of that is run by Leff (Alex Pettyfer), who is someone you don’t want to cross. He and his nephew Mike (Rory Culkin) run their drug game, but whereas Leff is sure and direct, Mike is not the guy who would produce fear in anyone. Life in this neighborhood seems to go on as normal, with all of the players living their lives, uninterrupted by each other. But as time goes by, some things start to bubble up. Mike doesn’t want to do what Leff does, and the brother of the man that Adam killed is finding it hard not to seek revenge as his own life starts to fall apart. All of this is building to a breaking point that not everyone will survive.

The title 5lbs of Pressure refers to the trigger sensitivity of a handgun and is based on a real-life event in writer/director Phil Allocco’s life. You can feel the effect that the event had on Allocco, with big ideas he wants to share about both past and future mistakes. Those ideas are definitely shared, and while it does have some shine to it, for the most part, the story just wanders around for its nearly two-hour runtime, never reaching for the heights it aims for. Instead, it gives us a lot of a “been there, seen that” vibe, leaving us with a desire to see something that is not afraid to color outside the lines.

5lbs of Pressure shares some valuable lessons of guilt and pain, but what those lessons lack is any emotional punch to them. In fact, most of the characters lack any emotion at all, except Evans and Leonidas, who feel like they are the only ones with blood pumping through their veins. Everyone else delivers their performance in an almost monotone way, which doesn’t really work when a heightened emotion is needed. Allocco also reveals too much at the beginning of the film, which gives you too clear a glimpse of what is to come, robbing the film of suspense that would have been nice to have. I can appreciate what Allocco was trying to accomplish, but ultimately his film just doesn’t deliver the right pressure to make a diamond.