“The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.”
– Proverb
The bonds we form in our youth ripple into adulthood. Even if their presence ebbs, the impact of those connections remains. These people, perhaps found in adolescence or earlier, perhaps in young adulthood, end up forming the village that matters most and often becomes the village that rises around you in times both tough and soft. This is the core component of writer/director Kris McMenamin’s (The Amalia Chronicles) Misfits, a family dramedy that jumps between timelines as it explores the ties that bind and the lengths we go for the ones we love. Currently working to drum up attention and support for a wider release, McMenamin’s Misfits is as rough-and-tumble a tale as it is a production, yet, its lack of refinement is as much a feature for the experience as it is emblematic of the narrative itself.
Sam Meola as Josh in MISFITS. Photo courtesy of Gallows Grin Production.
Longtime friends Ryan, Becca, Spencer, Lucas, Josh, and Sandy (Christian Levens, Kat Reeve, Jacob Burke, Russell Levin, Sam Meola, and CeeCee Simone, respectively) make it a point to stay connected, so much so that Josh and Sandy’s kids refer to the others as Aunt and Uncle and that sometimes plane tickets just appear in inboxes so that they can all be together for the holidays. This connection proves critical when Sandy passes and Josh struggles, not just to take care of their daughters, but to stay up on bills. As a real estate predator tries to manipulate things in order to procure Josh’s home, the gang comes up with a last ditch plan to raise cash to stave off foreclosure just a little longer, but it means these middle-aged men risking life and limb by climbing into the squared circle.
L-R: Carlie Ann Kaufman as Darlene and CeeCee Simone as Sandy in MISFITS. Photo courtesy of Gallows Grin Production.
As a first feature film project, Misfits impresses and much of it is due to the time spent with the characters. Many projects involving friend core groups have a tendency to shortcut things or generally run closer to 90 minutes so that audiences can get in and out quickly; whereas, here, McMenamin wants the audience to exist in this version of Pennsylvania. We don’t necessarily know the town and the wide shots don’t entirely line up with the way the bad guy developer describes it, but the ways in which the characters move through the town and engage each other in their respective homes provides a sense of grounding. This isn’t a hangout movie in the traditional sense of heapfuls of dialogue and a loose narrative, descriptors reserved for the likes of Jackie Brown (1997) or Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), but a dramedy that centers its characters and their relationships, using their fluctuating statuses to examine life, love, and what we owe each other. Both a plus and minus at times, McMenamin’s script doesn’t offer unnecessary exposition, often throwing the audience into a situation without much setup, requiring the audience to just roll with things — this specifically relates to the time jumps and the shifting actors within the same roles (more shortly). Doing this reinforces the fact that these are real characters who talk to each other as people, not props. Especially when the tragedy befalls Sandy and Josh, we need to believe that the … well … misfits in this crew are going to be ok by virtue of their relationships to each other.
Christian Levens as Ryan in MISFITS. Photo courtesy of Gallows Grin Production.
Much of this belief comes from the performances from the cast, who appear to be relative newcomers with Meola and Simone being the two with the most credits to-date: Meola with work in projects like the first two Creed films, Army of the Dead (2021), and Caddy Hack (2023), and Simone with work in projects like Ghost Punchers (2025) and the upcoming fan film Avengers: Race Against Time (2026). These two provide the anchor for the film in the modern portions of Misfits, becoming the de facto center of the group by virtue of narrative needs. Of the friend group, their characters seem the most put together with their two kids and a house, a choice that makes the rest coming in to assist a smart decision as it propels the others to face their own weaknesses in order to step up for the situation, and their respective performances are quietly powerful, each providing different aspects that make up the beating heart of the film. Reeve as adult Becca and Carlie Ann Kauffman as older Darlene are the two other standouts in the film. Reeve’s (Infinity Girls; Crimson Carnations) Becca represents one portion of a troubled couple who found ways to get by, not quite finishing school and never really finding her footing in love after young Ryan (Jake Hollister) moved away after high school. While all the characters of the friend group step in somehow to aid Josh and his girls, Becca becomes their rock and Reeve ensures that the character doesn’t become lost by or drowned in other people’s sorrow. Reeve inserts a resilient quality to Becca which enables Becca’s arc to feel as significant as the center tale. As older Darlene, Kauffman exudes a character that is the best and worst of their parents, as well as the bridge between what was (their youth) and what is (the responsibilities of parenthood that don’t stop when one spouse dies). Kauffman ensures that Darlene is full of passion and spit and vinegar, but able to communicate her needs in such a way that we don’t forget she’s essentially still a child. All of these dynamics and the actors still find ways to make them stand out and fill their emotional arcs with ache.
L-R: Christian Levens as Ryan and Kat Reeve as Becca in MISFITS. Photo courtesy of Gallows Grin Production.
The whole of Misfits in its current form is quite rough. It jumps back and forth in time from 2024 to 2017 to 2006 and back again as it uses the present to set up the past and vice versa. This creates a number of confusing moments as the actors in one sequence don’t necessarily align to the same characters in another. One can easily understand the adult version of, say, Young Josh (Zachary Geiger) to adult Josh (Meola), but the sequence involving young Darlene (Alexa Olvet) to adult Darlene (Kauffman) are only a few years apart and the difference between them is so significant that one struggles for a time to realize that the actors are playing the same character. The confusion compounds when a previously unseen younger child who looks more like the young Darlene is “introduced,” which takes the audience out of the film for a time until recalibrated. There are also audio dropouts and the occasional rough cut edit, signs of a production doing their best with what they have. These are blemishes, but they also align with the intention of the narrative, which is that there’s a place for misfits. Even as the viewer may struggle to latch onto who is who and what’s going on since McMenamin does throw us into things fairly quickly, the sincerity of the narrative and the performances from the cast are so compelling that one finds themselves eagerly willing to stay locked-in, rooting for them all the way.
L-R: Sam Meola as Josh and Josh Schultz as Santa Crusher in MISFITS. Photo courtesy of Gallows Grin Production.
At its heart, Misfits is a fairly standard “let’s rally to save the community center” type comedy mixed with a lovingly constructed tale of the family we make in the absence of the family we don’t have. Even with all of its Christmas trappings, it’s not really *about* the holiday but about being open to the possibilities of what we can do when we allow ourselves to rely on our loved ones. It’s easy to be a friend when things are easy and can feel impossible when things are hard, but that’s what friendship is — it’s a choice. You can live in the same town and never speak, you can live hours away and talk constantly: one has to choose to engage, to be present, and to take part in your friend’s life. This message is both plain, yet pertinent at a time when systems seem to be breaking down to create isolation and communication impairment. Even when the film is a tad messy, one is willing to forgive it because its sincerity and heart shine through, presenting a friend group we all wish to have, constructed of these exact kinds of knuckleheads; imperfect and wonderful because of their imperfections.
Available on VOD via Prime Video December 15th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Gallows Grin Productions Facebook page.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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