MOVIE REVIEWS : ‘No Secrets’: Low-Budget, High Quality

Perfectly acted, sharply photographed, intelligently written and directed, the low-budget teen-age suspense drama “No Secrets” (at the UA Egyptian) is a real sleeper: a movie that, by rights, shouldn’t be exceptional at all, but manages to transcend its own genre, and perhaps even its original intentions, through sheer quality.

Movies that cost 10 times as much should be half as good. It’s a psychological drama about three teen-age girls from Brentwood, childhood friends who have drifted far apart, but who reunite for spring break at an isolated California ranch.

The girls are almost comically diverse. There’s Jennifer (Amy Locane), the manipulative sexpot; Claire (Heather Fairfield), the shy, studious introvert, and Sam (Traci Lind), the leather-jacketed punk. Unbeknown to them, Claire’s family ranch has been invaded by a fugitive: raffishly charming, scarily resourceful Army deserter Manny (Adam Coleman Howard), who has a violent streak. After conning the girls into letting him stay, he seduces each of them in turn, while his darker motivations and history rise inexorably to the surface.

Initially, this premise seems overused, its possibilities slight. Under ordinary circumstances, the story would be jacked up to include liberal doses of teasing sex and carnage. But, as the movie gathers momentum, Dezso Magyar--who directed and co-wrote it with William Scheuer--takes a more penetrating look at the material. He turns it into a telling study of outcasts, social division and human bonds.

Magyar--a Hungarian emigre whose long-banned “The Agitators” remains one of the best films ever on revolutionary movements--understands the value of buried violence to make a movie come alive. Throughout “No Secrets,” he concentrates on personality, undercurrents and suggestion. Together with his excellent cinematographer, Sandi Sissel, who shot “Salaam Bombay,” he creates image after image of unobtrusive, tense beauty: sharply etched views of the countryside, lucid shots of the uneasy foursome.

Every cast member acts at a high level. Howard, who bears some physical resemblance to Robert De Niro, has some of De Niro’s slow-burning intensity as well; his best scenes are genuinely magnetic. Contemplative Fairfield, sexy Locane and sneering Lind are so good, alone or in ensemble, that they quickly make you forget the seemingly artificial circumstances of their reunion. Although the dialogue is rather spare and commonplace, there is no strain in any of these performances. They suggest both underlying humanity and something more opaque and mysterious.

Magyar has made a couple of American films, including an adaptation of Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” for PBS, and he doesn’t take too many chances. The characters in “No Secrets” (rated R for language and sexual situations) begin and end as archetypes. But cinematic language is something he seems to understand intuitively. Simple, clear, consummately crafted, “No Secrets” is a prime example of first-class film storytelling in low-budget generic terms: an “exploitation” thriller that thrills, but doesn’t exploit.

‘No Secrets’

Adam Coleman Howard Manny

Amy Locane Jennifer

Heather Fairfield Claire

Traci Lind Sam

A Curb Communications presentation in association with Mike Curb and Lester Korn, released by IRS Releasing. Director Dezso Magyar. Producers Morgan Mason, John Hardy, Shauna Shapiro. Executive producers David Jackson, Carol Curb. Screenplay by William Scheuer, Magyar. Cinematographer Sandi Sissel. Editor Suzanne Fenn. Costumes Jan Roton. Music Vinny Golia. Production design Clare Scarpulla. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (language, sexual situations).