Up for Grabs!

A naive-art gangster movie with digressions!

This is Nick Plakidis, rising star in a world of drugs, prostitution and violence.

This is the clash of greed and ethics, money and love, genre and absurdity.

This is a Surefire Productions second feature, shot in twelve days with a budget of ten thousand dollars and a Mack Sennet cum garage punk spirit.

Starring Pedros Coulloupas, Russell Gilbert, Anthony Ziella, Djana Rajkovic, Josie Parrelli, Jim Ewing, Brian Harmer, Yael Cohn, Shannon Henrikkson.

Edited by Paul Rowe / Music by Bruno Spoerri / Titles & design by Adele Daniele / Sound by Michael Prior & Ben Carew / Written, directed and produced by Tadgh Taylor.

click here for more clips at youtube/ledatape

This is what the critics are saying about Up for Grabs.

• Pacy, good natured…never loses direction even if it never walks a straight line…cool, laconic…a pleasure to watch. – Neil Sinyard (author of The Films of Richard Lester)
• …shot for $1.98, and looks it (in the best possible way)…energy and style to burn. Recommended. – Wheeler Winston Dixon (author of Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood, The Exploding Eye: A Re-Visionary History of American Experimental Cinema…)
• …reminded me of Euston films productions of the 1970’s. – Leon Hunt (author of British Low Culture, Kung Fu Cult Masters…)
• ….charmingly funny crime picture which entertainingly mixes parody, personality comedy and dark humor. Red Skelton would’ve loved it! – Wes D. Gehring (author of Seeing Red: the Skelton in Hollywoods Closet, Personality Comedians as Genre, Screwball Comedy)
• The production values are high, acting incredibly good, camerawork, direction, etc. faultless…life, humor and a sense of anarchic fun. – Anthony Slide (author of De Toth on De Toth, The Encyclopaedia of Vaudeville, Eccentrics of Comedy…)

approximate running time sixty minutes.

Up for Grabs is supported by the City of Melbourne through the Arts Grants Program. Surefire Productions is not associated with the LedaTape Organisation but Tadhg is a legend and his movie is a total hoot so I offered to host some clips.