The Black Iris is a sort of modern day noir about a detective named Jim Wagner, played by guess who. As the story starts, Wagner narrates to us with his very deep voice over that he doesn't believe in fate; just luck. Possibly this speech will come into play later. Then, a little hottie played by the slightly stiff Beth Golub shows up and presents him with a honey of a case. She wants him to steal some dirty files from her mob boss ex-boyfriend who's currently trying to hunt her down. If she can get these files, she can put him away for good. Jim cuts her off and screams at her about how dangerous this case is. Here, James Dastoli uses an emotion from his everyday repertoir-- impatience for other people. Of course, in real life, this is balanced by a joy of living that Jim Wagner doesn't share. He then takes the case.

In the next scene, we are introduced to the mob boss, Rick Jackson (played by Pat DeNicola). Jim tails Jackson very closely in his car, then follows him into a bar and blatantly stares at him playing poker. Jackson doesn't notice, possibly because he's blinded by evil. Although it doesn't appear like he ever enjoys himself during the card game. No one in this movie enjoys themselves in doing anything, except for possibly the bartender, played by Mike Lydon. This is the Dastolis' commentary on how greed and ambition bring nothing but pain and sorrow, and the only true happiness comes from leading an honest life. Or, more likely, it is Mike Lydon's shitty acting.

Jim then follows Jackson to his office in the middle of the night, watches him do something, and waits for him to leave. When Jim approaches the building, he gets inside using the key given to him earlier by the hottie. He goes inside Jackson's file cabinet and discovers that the folder he needed to get the dirty files from is empty! Did Jackson take the files with him? Probably he should've come to this building directly instead of watching Jackson play cards all day and letting him come and get the files.

Jim goes home and calls the hottie to tell her what happened. They determine that Jackson must have moved the files to his home. Jim then vehemently draws the line, saying that now the case is REALLY too dangerous. The hottie triples his fee, and he re-takes the case.

But they don't know Jackson's alarm code, so Jim calls an old buddy and fellow ex-cop Thomas Walker, played by Jake Nabel (who, as always, falls just short of DeNicola-level greatness, but still beats the shit out of Donny Copeland, who doesn't have a speaking role in this movie, but would fuck it up if he did). Walker works for a security company. Jim asks him for Jackson's alarm code. Walker says he absolutely will not give it to him, because it's against the rules. Jim lies to him and gives him a bribe, which Walker quickly accepts. For some reason, they hold this meeting in the same fucking bar that Jackson uses as his poker hangout. Jim Wagner is a moron. But nobody notices, because everyone is blinded by corruption.

Later, Jim sees Jackson hitting a guy with a piece of wood, and he turns into a chicken shit again. He calls the hottie and tells her that this time, the deal is really off. It's just way too dangerous. The hottie says she can't afford to abandon this mission now, so she asks Jim for the alarm code, so she can break into the house and get the files herself. Jim tells her the code, but also not to do it. Then he sits in his office for a bit.

So the hottie breaks into the house, goes into the room with the files, when a person enters and catches her. It's Jim, because he couldn't let her do it alone! But then Jackson shows up, and he can smell something fishy. Jim gets the drop on him and they engage in some crappy fighting, in the middle of which the hottie shoots and kills Jackson. They then escape with the files, which are pretty fucking pointless now that Jackson's dead, but whatever. The hottie falls asleep on Jim's couch. Jim takes a peek in the envelope containing the files and makes a remark about them. "So much for your files," he says. This confused the shit out of me. A consult to the script revealed that in the envelope was millions of dollars. I'm sad to say that even with Jim's vague remark, this simply did not read on screen.

The next morning, Jim wakes up and the hottie is gone, but she left him a nice note and 200 thousand dollars. It is here that we see how Jim was the most sightless of all, blinded by his own vices. He then says that this score was not fate; it was luck.

As you can see, this story just goes back and forth, and not a lot happens in the end. I think the James and Robert just wanted to make a nice big noir, and nothing was going to stop them. But the best part about this movie is the behind the scenes, where, for the first and only time, Dastolis allow everyone else involved in the production to be interviewed. See firsthand the seemingly incompetent Donny Copeland, the brilliant Pat DeNicola, the enraged James Dastoli, and their befuddled schoolteacher, all captured in what appears to be the middle of a crowded classroom. It is in this featurette that Scott Yager shines as the greatest talent ever involved with Dastoli Digital. His interview is better than The Black Iris.

Here is what the Dastolis have to say about it:

JAMES:

"The Black Iris is the first time we really made something you can begin to call a film. We completely took everything to a higher level. We thought at the time of course that it was so much better than it actually is."

ROBERT:

"The Black Iris began many Dastoli Digital traditions. One was the arduous struggle with the ending. I don't remember exactly what Donny had written, and I'm pretty sure all traces of his original draft have been erased, but whatever it was we didn't like it. We then had to come up with changes right down to the night we shot it. We did that a few times for later movies, especially for the two very similar endings of Nice Night for a Murder and Dark Exposures."

One charming thing about every Dastoli Digital movie is that tendency their scripts have to change mid-production. It reminds us that they're still just two kids with a camera shooting their friends after school. One day, they'll get paid to do this, and it will become a job that pays money. And they will become corrupted and blinded by evil, just like Jim Wagner. Our only hope is that every day, after work at the studio, they come home and shoot problematic movies with their friends.