Paul Dillon

"Fight Club", "Austin Powers", "Blink", "Natural Born Killers," "Law & Order," "CSI Miami," "Millennium," & "NYPD Blue."

Brendan Hines

"More Bitch than a Bitch," "Orange Crush," "Dealing with Claire," "Ordinary Sinner," "Heavy Petting," "Angel," "Love, Inc."

DIRECTOR STATEMENT
I used to be an attorney with an impressive career spanning nearly 6 weeks.

Why I left is another story, but during my time at law school, I met a handful of criminal defense lawyers. I was always surprised that none of them fit the legal drama stereotype of the idealistic detective fighting for truth or the television ad stereotype of a sleazeball who will say or do anything once his check clears. Most of the ones I met were jaded individuals who were tired of having to answer the question, “How can you put guilty criminals back on the street?”

I remember one of them started his speech by posing that very question to himself and then answering, “Because I want money!” I didn’t believe him though. Rather, I thought something else he said better illustrated how he felt about his work: “I thought I was going to be Perry Mason and help the wrongly accused. But after several years I realized that if the police have enough evidence to arrest your client, the prosecution has enough evidence to pursue him, and the DA has enough evidence to justify using government resources to put him on trial, your client is probably guilty.”

"JUST" is the story of a lawyer with a similar realization but who refuses to resign himself to that fact. I wanted to tell this story from the warped perspective that only those of us simple farm boys turned forensic homicide detectives turned attorneys with nearly 6-week-long careers turned filmmakers possess. This meant reading an unhealthy amount of Jim Thompson, watching some great noir films like "Murder, My Sweet" and "Out of the Past," and dark comedies like "Barton Fink," "Network," and Alec Guinness’ Ealing Studio comedies.

We knew we would be walking a tightrope in terms of the dark comic tone, but the actors nailed it. Brendan Hines brought the unhinged zeal needed for a character as mixed up as Eddie Winkle. Veteran actor William Windom brought a lovable obliviousness to his performance as Eddie’s constantly inebriated grandfather. And Paul Dillon did the nearly impossible by making his cold-blooded Lou Tanner not only likeable but also the only rational person working on his defense.

The end result is "JUST," a comedy noir about a young defense lawyer who only wants to do what’s right. Even if it means doing a lot of wrong along the way.

Jesse Wheeler