Movie Review: ‘Any Day Now’

by | Mar 16, 2025 | Featured Post, Movie Reviews, Movies | 0 comments


Greetings again from the darkness. St. Patrick’s Day 2025 marks the 35th anniversary of the single largest unsolved property theft in the world. On that day, thieves made off with hundreds of millions of dollars of artwork from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas, and Manet). The reward offer of $10 million still stands. Writer-director Eric Aronson presents his feature film debut, inspired by the crime … though he admits, “this is not what happened.”

Steve Baker (Taylor Gray, SATURDAY NIGHT, 2024) works as an overnight security guard at the museum. He’s what we used to call a ‘doormat’ – meaning he’s a nice guy, but his friends (and pretty much everyone) takes advantage of him. Danny (Armando Rivera) is his roommate and bandmate, and hasn’t paid rent in six months, and basically sabotages their band. Sara (Alexandra Templer) is Danny’s girlfriend, and more importantly, Steve’s unrequited and silent dream girl – though she also takes advantage of him. On top of everything, Steve owes $5000 to his drug dealer.

Nice guy Steve has mostly lost control of his life and sees no real path towards improvement. That’s when Marty Lyons (Paul Guilfoyle) shows up. You’ll surely recognize Mr. Guilfoyle from his many appearances in movies and TV shows, although it’s terrific to see him in a rare lead role. Marty, a lover of poetry and art, maneuvers Steve into his criminal operation – including as a surprise character witness at Marty’s parole hearing. Soon enough, Steve’s life gets more complicated, not less. He finds himself juggling his role in Marty’s art heist plan, the personal threats of a rival gangster (Thomas Kee), questioning from the FBI, and worries about his relationships with Danny and Sara.

This is the type of independent film that’s a pleasure to embrace. We are even treated to Guilfoyle singing The Standells song, “Dirty Water” live at a bar. Every character here has ‘a story’ to tell. Some get to tell theirs, while we are left to fill in the gaps on others. This is not so much a heist film as one with a clear message … breaking out of a rut for a new life can be difficult and challenging, but also worthwhile.

Opens on March 17, 2025

David Ferguson
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