Cash Only

An Albanian-American landlord runs into some serious money troubles in Cash Only. Elvis Martini (Nickola Shreli) is the landlord of a dilapidated Detroit apartment building, which is in danger of being foreclosed on by the bank. With the tenants behind on their rent, Elvis is desperate for money to pay the mortgage and believes he has found the jackpot when he finds a bag of money in the apartment of a recently evicted tenant. However, taking the money ends up creating bigger problems for Elvis, as the owner of the money wants it back immediately.

Elvis Martini is a morally ambiguous Albanian-American landlord, who has no boundaries about how he gets the money to pay off his debts, whether it’s taking a stake in the marijuana grow-op in the basement, committing fraud towards prospective tenants, or stealing a bag of money from a vacant apartment. However, despite his criminal tendencies, Elvis is a caring father to his young daughter and when she is kidnapped by thugs looking for their money back, he’ll do anything to get her back unharmed.

Cash Only is a pretty solid thriller, even though it does take a while for the plot to get going. The film can probably be best described as being about a bad guy, who is trying his best to do good. In fact, it probably isn’t he is driven into a corner that he is willing some of the more morally compromising actions. The film builds up to a pretty tense showdown, which has one hell of a great playoff. Altogether, despite having a bit of a slow pace, Cash Only is a thriller that’s worth checking out.

 ★ ★ ★ ★ | LIKED IT