Windfall



Windfall is the second feature length film by Mike Barkhoff. Surprise released on May 8th, 2020, the idea for Windfall came to Barkhoff in May of 2018 and was filmed from October to December 2018.

Barkhoff intended for "I Give It A Year" to be his second feature film, but when COVID-19 became a common worry and quarantine got put into effect, Barkhoff decided to edit together Windfall, which was originally intended to be a web series. He had completed it's first season across four episodes, and decided to turn it into a film by removing small portions of subplot that would've lead the series further, but maintained releasing it in Parts to give a subtle callback to the method of his first film and also to signify how he changed the format from episodes to a film.

Premise
Marcus Crawsley is a parking ramp employee who lives a complacent life. Work and be unappreciated by his co-workers. Go home and be unappreciated by his fiance. Upon finding two thousand dollars in a stairwell one day, he is forced to react upon confrontation of the rightful owner of the money, and what happens next catapults him into a life of crime he never would've imagined capable on his behalf.

Plot
Marcus Crawsley is a parking ramp employee who is becoming very complacent with his same-old routine of never-ending, non-changing, everyday life. His fiance, Mary Crawsley, treats him with disrespect due to their differing opinions, and one of his three co-workers treats him poorly due to seeing him as a bad worker, but simply misunderstanding him.

Upon cleaning one day, he finds a bundle of cash in a crevice in the stairwell. He counts it in the elevator and places it on his person, before asking his disrespectful co-worker, Eddie, if he can take early lunch. After some negotiation, he gets the go-ahead and leaves. Upon going home, he puts the money in his safe and decides to treat Mary to something nice.

The money ends up straining from his pockets sooner than expected. At the same time, he finds a note while cleaning, demanding to get the money returned. He ignores it, but hears from his nice co-worker, Matthew, that a man was walking around the ramp looking for money. Marcus finds a man in a stairwell and, believing him to be the man, confronts him. The man jumps, showing his gun by accident, and runs off.

Marcus and Mary continue fighting about all sorts of regular stuff while Marcus becomes less and less concerned with being a good worker. Marcus is then confronted by the real man looking for money, who introduces himself as Quinn, before threatening and punching Marcus.

Marcus doesn't retrieve the Quinn's money in time, and Quinn retaliates, killing innocent parkers of the ramp. Marcus finds the other, innocent man from the stairwells and asks to buy the gun. Mary finds out about the gun and confronts him. Marcus feeds her a lie about how he's got it for protection on a personal level. Regardless, their relationship begins to crumble.

Marcus sets up an elaborate trap as he continues being followed by Quinn. He lures Quinn in and gets him to stumble down steps in one of the ramp's stairwells before shooting him. Marcus makes it look like he was attacked, hiding the supplies used for his trap, and lying to police. He also stitches his hand, which he learned to do by watching a YouTube video while planning ahead.

Marcus then meets Jason, the brother of Quinn, who manipulates Marcus into working for him. Marcus meets two goons set up to be his employees, Joey and Sid, and shows them around the ramp, preparing them to sell. When Jason takes Marcus to meet a third goon, Marcus kills the goon and Jason, upsetting Joey and Sid. They have no choice but to work for Marcus, as the control is now in his hands.

Marcus steers their company into the ground, forcing them to sell too much. He also sails his relationship into the ground, as Mary becomes worried about what he is doing outside of home at night, having a hunch it is bad, but leaning more towards cheating. Eddie, having become extremely curious about Marcus and what he does when he hides during work hours, believing him to be selling drugs, gets intermixed in the chaos that ensues. Marcus hears two men are following him. Joey and Sid, now romantically involved, show up to help Marcus upon command. Two hitman attack, one, a seemingly random girl in the elevator, is beaten to death by Marcus with a hammer after showing her gun. Another hitman then shoots Eddie, starting a gunfight. Matthew runs to see what is happening, seeing Eddie's fallen body. Joey is also hit by a stray bullet. Marcus, meanwhile, tries to make himself look innocent, but manages to kill Eddie, using the gun he had for protection.

Mary comes home to find a note from Marcus, apologizing to her and telling her the truth. The note ends with him revealing that he is leaving her because it's the best thing for her.

Cast
Mike Barkhoff as Marcus Crawsley

Travis Barkhoff as Matthew

Ashtun O'Rourke as Mary Crawsley

Jarrod Van Hauen as Joey

Sydney See as Sid

Tyler Fulks as Quinn Wright

Mason Gronen as Jason Wright

Dillon Bosler as Eddie

Emmett Kendrick as Boss

Shae Lynn as Rodney

Brett Mast as Stairwell Man

Madison See as Elevator Girl

Yung Bong as Hitman

Production
Barkhoff intended to create Windfall as a web series, and filmed it as so. The first "Parts" were initially four episodes. The idea for the plot came to Barkhoff while he was working, which is where the film takes place - a parking ramp.

Barkhoff wrote out a storyline for up until Season 4, and scripted episodes up until that point, also, getting as far as Season 3, Episode 5 (the next two seasons were intended to each contain six episodes). Barkhoff filmed fragments of Seasons 2 and 3 with Season 1, keeping them to the side to put with the other seasons when the time came for such actions.

After loosing several friends, Barkhoff decided to cut Windfall rather than to recast a majority of the characters. Due to this, he sat on the material for awhile before beginning editing at the start of COVID-19, namely when everybody was stuck inside due to quarantine. He edited the first draft of the film in a single day, before going back and fixing it the next day and scheduling the majority of it for release.

Preparing for release, Barkhoff had the idea for an animated intro during the first part, after the opening scene's conclusion, and reached out to an artist on Instagram. He ended up getting money taken from him, and the intro fell apart.

Reception
Windfall was met with critical acclaim, with many critics deeming it very impressive for Barkhoff's age and lack of proper experience as a filmmaker. It was collectively agreed upon as being superior to INFINITE., and the segments Barkhoff covered were met with the most praise, namely the camerawork, the writing, the editing, and the soundtrack.

Notably, the editing was received well and discussed at length due to the fact Barkhoff did all of it in a matter of two days. It was considered highly impressive and a "flip observation" at the ideal 'rules' of filmmaking, which were taught to Barkhoff himself. The soundtrack was also met with attention, with many considering the songs adding to the structure of the scenes they played over perfectly.

The film holds a 9.4/10 rating on IMDb from 26 ratings as of May 21st, 2021, and is considered by many to be Barkhoff's new standard of his best feature length film.

Analysis
Many have summoned the film to regard how everyday life gets straining and leads to repetition. As Marcus' begins to get deeper into the business of drug dealing, many have interpreted this as the everyday casual person longing for a way out.

Sequel
Barkhoff has discussed the idea of a sequel, but has confirmed it to be "uncertain" due to it "missing something". Going into further details, he described this as a "plot, character, or series of sequences". In Doppelgang (Short), his laptop screen reveals the title of a sequel for the film - "Windfall: The Last Cigarette". Barkhoff confirmed, when discussing the sequel, that it would cover his favorite scripts that were disattached from the title following the shift from web series to film, one of which was reported to be from Season 3, and the other from Season 2.

As of May 24th, 2021, he has remained silent on the situation. Rather, Doppelgang was confirmed as his third film.