12 Hour Shift

There’s an oft-quoted moment in Anchorman where Will Ferrell notes “that escalated quickly” after a particularly insane fight. Well, 12 Hour Shift is essentially That Escalated Quickly: The Movie. About a drug-addicted nurse who sells black market organs on the side, and how her schemes start to unravel over the course of an overnight shift, it’s the type of movie where things keep going more and more wrong for the main character, and eventually you think, well, things can’t go more wrong than this, and then of course they do. It sometimes verges on being overly quirky, but for the most part it’s fun, frenetic, and features confident direction from writer/director Brea Grant, not to mention a great lead performance from Angela Bettis (and a supporting cast that’s just as strong). It’s also nice and peppy, running at a delightfully slim-and-trim 86 minutes.

*** out of ****