Film Review: ‘When The Well Runs Dry’

Two estranged brothers must come together to figure out life after the sudden loss of their mother by a tragic car accident.

One week after the sudden passing of their mother, the Winston brothers must find their new normal. The film opens up with the older brother Maurice Winston played wonderfully by Ricardo Manigat watching a news excerpt from his mothers tragic passing the night before in a multi-car accident. Immediately we’re thrown into his dynamic circumstances and from there the film wastes no time with the unraveling of the drama. Younger brother, Marcus Winston, played by Donte Grey is on a tirade of emotion and the cause doesn’t become quite clear until the end of the movie (we’ll address those feelings later).  When The Well Runs Dry tells the story of two inner-city black boys growing up without a father in a single-parent home. Their mother is their life source and the film explores what happens when that life source is ripped out of their life.

The film is filled with fresh young talent, producer, co-writer and actor Reggie Lochard does triple duty in his feature film debut and it doesn’t stop there, the aforementioned Donte Grey has a pretty solid resume which includes shows like Netflix’s Iron Fist, Orange is the New Black and From Nowhere. The film also stars Noel Elie (Blue Bloods & Shades of Blue) and DeShawn White (The Deuce, The Last OG, Jessica Jones, and Law and Order: SVU) and Jaelin Taylor who plays the ill-advised best friend of Marcus Winston in the film.

The film stays true to it’s Indie roots as there’s not much theatrics in this 72-minute feature, but what the film lacks in production value it surely makes up for in storyline and realism. The best thing about When The Well Runs Dry is that it’s relatable. Many people from all walks of life will be able to relate to one thing or another in this film and if not you can’t help but feel for what these characters are going through.

The younger brother Marcus Winston does a wonderful job of making all the wrong choices, “But everyone deals with these types of situations differently” to quote producer Reggie Lochard. Marcus take a completely different route to deal with his grief than his older brother Maurice. Maurice on the other hand is an emotional mess from beginning to end, but Ricardo Manigat does a fine job of keeping the character somewhat layered and steadfast. The film moves rather quickly and spends little time on exploration, which is a good and bad thing depending on who you ask, but for what it’s worth the execution of this film from first time film maker Reggie Lochard shows a lot of promise in the young star and has us looking out for more from him in the near future.

We had the pleasure of catching up with the Executive Director of the New York Latino Film Festival, Mr. Calixto Chinchilla and he enjoyed the film quoting “It was an honor to spotlight this film and help bring attention to such an emotional and real story”. Here’s to hoping When The Well Runs Dry continues this positive trajectory throughout the rest of the film festival circuit.

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