[Tribeca 2020 Review] 12 Hour Shift is the Right Mix of Black Comedy and Shocking Violence

12 Hour Shift is one of those films that maybe shouldn’t work but does, wonderfully. A movie like this, with its mix of black comedy and shocking violence, requires just the right touch to work and avoid becoming self-indulgent. Writer/director Brea Grant—also an actress who’s appeared in genre films like Rob Zombie’s Halloween II and Beyond the Gates—manages to walk the tonal tightrope and make a Southern-fried, extremely entertaining movie.

It helps that she’s got a fantastic lead, Angela Bettis. Beloved for her work in May, she plays our antihero Mandy: a nurse running a profitable side business in the illicit sale of organs swiped from hapless patients. She’s not really likeable…I mean, anyone who does what Mandy does is pretty reprehensible and the entire film trades in what the kids call “blue and gray morality.” But she’s compelling and smart, essentially the straight woman to all of the shenanigans that transpire over the course of, yep, 12 action-packed hours at an Arkansas hospital.

Her biggest obstacle comes in the form of her hilariously dumb cousin, Regina (Chloe Farnworth, the movie’s secret weapon), who sets the plot in motion when she accidentally loses the bag of organs she promised her boss. She returns to the hospital desperate for a replacement, and both she and Mandy make some, um, questionable decisions to try and make that happen.

There will be blood, natch.

The actresses are ably supported by the likes of Nikea-Gamby Turner as Mandy’s no-nonsense partner in the operation, Kit Williamson as a dopily sweet cop, and a delightful David Arquette (also a producer) as a prisoner who becomes entangled in the events. There really isn’t a weak link in this cast and Tom De Trinis steals scenes as a demanding gay patient. The choice to set the film in 1999 is somewhat curious, as it doesn’t have much bearing on the movie, but it does allow for some hilarious and well-chosen period references.

Grant directs with an assured hand, choreographing some wonderfully fun sequences and letting her cast really shine. Farnworth, in particular, is extremely amusing and somehow remains likeable even as she makes increasingly stupid decisions. It’s a tight and witty screenplay that keeps up a steady pace and punctuates the storyline with big moments that stay just on the right side of credibility. 

Bettis has never gotten the career she deserves, and this little hoot of a movie proves that both she and her director are forces to be reckoned with. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

The Tribeca Film Festival was postponed, but select films were made available to members of the press and industry.