In July, Artists in Agony: Hitmen at the Coda Teahouse (2021) is out. The movie is a mockumentary dark comedy where a camera crew follows four hitmen who end up getting killed in the infamous Coda Teahouse Massacre. Years later, footage from the documentary crew emerges revealing how these four bungling psychopaths ended up dead in the criminal underground’s greatest mystery. Like if This Is Spinal Tap (1984) was an action rollercoaster.
Ex-CIA Agent Jonathan Sully guides us through the footage, suspecting they were killed by the renowned assassin artist known as Rockstar, considered the greatest hitman who ever lived.
This is the debut feature film of Kenneth Lui after the awards-winner short films Falsehood (2001) and White Wolf: Zombie Killer (2019). He is a noted visual effects artist and supervisor who has participated in a bunch of blockbusters including Terminator Salvation (2009), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), The Last Stand (2013), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), Riddick (2013), RoboCop (2014), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Ant-Man (2015), The Hateful Eight (2015), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Doctor Strange (2016).
The main cast in Artists in Agony: Hitmen at the Coda Teahouse (2021) is formed by Courtney Sara Bell, Frank Kitchin, Ryan Egnatoff, Danny Gonzalez, Jason Frost, Patrick Hancock, Freddy Harris, Darren Mangler, and Kate Huffman.
The director Kenneth Lui says “I was cheering up a friend who was getting over a breakup and out of the blue he asked if I could create a project where he could, ‘Look cool shooting bad guys’. When I pictured my friend shooting bad guys, the shot was handheld like in a documentary. All of this reminded me how I always wanted to do a film where instead of a script, I’d give the actors goals and specific phrases for each scene and have them improvise with only myself knowing how the story ended. To do this would require very talented actors that were quick, funny, and could go with the flow–like in a jazz session. They also had to trust me. Fortunately, I know actors that can do all that. As a test, I asked them to let me shoot interviews where they discussed their approach to the craft of acting, but I edited it to appear like they were talking about the craft of being assassins”.
Artists in Agony: Hitmen at the Coda Teahouse (2021) was part of the ShockFest Film Festival on December 10, 2021. Now, it is scheduled for a release on digital platforms on July 21, 2023.
Watch the official trailer.
