It's not very often that the folks at Cheezy Flicks Entertainment find themselves distributing a film on the more recent end of distribution. However, that is the case with Monday Night Gig, a film directed by Tyson Smith and written by his brother Ian about a band that is not a Cinderella story but, in all likelihood, much closer to the reality of a lot of the up-and-coming bands that never actually make their way up.

The French is the band. Christian (Neil Kopplin) is the dreamer with the guitar. Tom "2" (Seneca Relich) is his reluctant friend. Grace (Ina Strauss) is their nihilist drummer and Tom "1" (Aaron Babb) is their vagabond bassist.

Together, these bandmates embark on an epic adventure that becomes this not quite epic comedy that is partially familiar, partially funny, and an incredibly promising film from the Smith brothers. Monday Night Gig isn't without its flaws, a fact that probably isn't too surprising given that it is being distributed by Cheezy Flicks.

After all, they don't exactly hide the kind of films they release.

Neil Kopplin does a fine job as Christian, the kind of musician I think anyone who has ever been one can recognize in that he refuses to give up on his dreams no matter how obvious it seems that he should. Ina Strauss is also top notch as as Grace, but the rest of the ensemble cast also redeems themselves for the most part quite nicely.

Monday Night Gig drags in places and has many of the issues that one associates with a truly low-budget flick, mostly the occasional tech issues including a sometimes wobbly sound mix and visuals that can be a tad dark at times (though I personally thought it worked well with the film).

It's also a rarity for Cheezy Flicks to have a DVD released with extras, but Monday Night Gig actually has a slew of them and they're definitely worth checking out. For more information on the film, check out the Cheezy Flicks website linkd to in the credits.

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic