TOXIC IMPULSES

(director/writer: Kyle Schadt; cinematographer: Jordan Rennert; editor: Kyle Schadt; music: Field Observations Bobby Slay; cast: Benedikt Sebastian (Peter Mosley), Olivia Buckle (Zemira), Sara Elizabeth Ryan (Keisha), Helene Udy (Liz), Robert Ackerman Moss (Boyd), Jay Habre (James), Kyle Schadt (Dead Man), Julirt Frew (Airplane passenger # 1), Jordan Rennert (Airplane passenger # 2); Runtime: 89; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Kyle Schadt; Major Major Films/Amazon Prime; 2022)

“It’s a goofy pic that could be fun if you just want to watch something that’s not quite as bad as it really is.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

The former film editor Kyle Schadt (“Silent Panic”) directs, edits, writes and plays a dead man in this micro-budget indie neo-noir film that is shot in LA in bright colors too rich for noir.


The divorcee LAPD ex-cop Peter Mosley (Benedikt Sebastian), tells us in his narration, that he was booted from the force for a poor job performance, and is bored staying home and being a couch potato. Therefore he jumps at the dubious offer to be a private eye, something he’s never done before, by his supposed new neighbor, Zemira (Olivia Buckle). Nothing is quite truthful about Zemira, who tells Mosley she is being blackmailed by a brute named Boyd (Robert Ackerman Moss) and she needs Mosley to protect her. But she fails to tell him that she’s a bank robber working for him.

Moseley’s neighbor in his apartment building is the reliable Christian woman, Liz (Helene Udy), who warns him to not trust that Zemira woman–that there’s something fishy about her.

Mosley in his investigation runs into several characters involved with Boyd who presumably know something about him and Zemira, including Zemira’s admirable construction worker ex-husband James (Jay Habre), raising their daughter, and Keisha (Sara Elizabeth Ryan), a young woman who works in a bookstore even though she hates books.

In the opening scene we already observed that Boyd is a vicious killer, with one of his dead vics played by the director.

The comedy is derived from Mosley being too nice a guy who is incapable of figuring out what’s up, and thereby becomes entangled in Zemira’s crimes.

Meanwhile we learn Zemira robs banks to support her heroin habit and to pay off her debt to the sociopathic Boyd.

It’s a goofy pic that could be fun if you just want to watch something that’s not quite as bad as it really is.

REVIEWED ON 11/23/2023  GRADE: B-