Tag: independent film

As we enter my Top 30, we get to the transition from 4 star movies to 4 1/2 star movies, and that transition takes place right at the documentaries, which anchor my 4 1/2 star movies. I admit it, I prefer narrative features to most docs. Every once in a while, a doc comes along to simply blow me away (Stories We Tell, The Gleaners & I, Protagonist, Honeyland) but those are few and far between. This is also a very U.S. heavy segment, with only one non-domestic film represented, from Hungary

#30 – The World to Come, directed by Mona Fastvold (USA) – It’s only natural to compare Mona Fastvold’s sophomore narrative directorial effort, THE WORLD TO COME to the other recent historical, forbidden love flick, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, and there are worse comparisons. But while the two woman in PORTRAIT explore the gaze, Abigail and Tallie’s connection is more cerebral… although there’s plenty of gaze there as well.

This 19th century tale finds Abigail running a farm with her husband Dyer, struggling through a harsh upstate New York winter after losing their only child to diphtheria. Her grief is overwhelming, and she writes about it in her journal with a lyricism that betrays her hunger for knowledge. When new neighbors, Tallie and Finney move in the two woman turn to each other in their loneliness. Abigail’s language and knowledge turn her inward, while Tallie moves through life like a flower, straining for the sun, reaching for the breeze, her entire body vibrating with tactile awareness, even as her agile mind responds to Abigail’s intellect. Ultimately the cruelty and power of men leads this story to an expected conclusion, but the time Fastvold spends drawing these two women out to become who they were meant to be is beautiful and revelatory. As portrayed by Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby, the two women become real as individuals, but also real as symbols of womanhood in a time when women had little agency or control of their lives. Their chemistry is lovely.

#29 – Dimland, directed by Peter Collins Campbell (USA) – For his feature directorial debut, music video director Peter Campbell chose a quiet, fantastical tale that could be looked at as the perils of nostalgia, the difficult transition from childhood to adulthood, or the way we deal with mental illness, depending on how deep you want to look. Brynn is a young woman out of sorts. Slightly depressed, she seeks a change of scenery, so she and her boyfriend, Laika, head out to the woods to stay in a family cottage and recharge. When they arrive, Brynn is dismayed to find the cottage recently-renovated into a fancy vacation home for the AirBnB crowd. Yet as they settle in, she finds that not everything has changed, and a dear friend from her childhood comes a calling. Brynn doesn’t recognize the oddly named Rue at first, as he is bundled in winter clothes and his face is concealed with an odd, wooden mask. Laika things Rue is awfully strange, but Brynn starts to remember him from her childhood and begins o spend more and more time with him, until it becomes clear that Rue is not simply a childhood friend, and Brynn is in danger of losing herself to another world.

DIMLAND is a fairly straight-forward, yet spiritual look at a fragile woman’s psyche, and the challenges she and many of us face in dealing with the transitioning responsibilities of adulthood. While Brynn may be suffering some deeper mental illness, DIMLAND was reminiscent to one of my favorite recent films, ANNE AT 13,000 FT. in the way it doesn’t seek to paint their lead characters as victims, nor as sources of unwarranted sympathies, but shoes the challenges their mental states pose to those around them. The acting in DIMLAND is quite strong, particularly Martha Brown as Brynn, and Nate Wise, who adopts a somewhat otherworldly voice, and odd shamble as Rue.The settings beautiful, with misty woods and rolling hills, but the strongest part of this thoughtful debut is certainly Campbell’s script.

#28 – Preparations to Stay Together for an Unknown Period of Time, directed by
Lili Horvát (Hungary) – As I play clean-up to this year’s batch of Chlotrudis nominations, I’m always thrilled when I stumble across one that I missed, that if I had seen, I would have nominated! Such is the case of Lili Horvát’s Hungarian drama/romance, PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME. Anchored by a remarkable performance by Nastasa Stork, our heroine may or may not be somewhat delusional. A native-born Hungarian working in the U.S. as a neurosurgeon, Marta meets and is drawn to Janós (Viktor Bodó) a fellow doctor at a conference. While she claims that it wasn’t quite love, it was enough to cause her to give up her glitzy job in the U.S. and return to Hungary where the two said they would reunite a month later by a particular bridge. When she finally finds him, not quite at the appointed time or place, he claims never to have seen her before. Whether the world is a little off, or Marta is doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, and in the end, we are never really certain, but it’s fascinating to watch Marta’s cool response to the curveballs her life throws at her, rebuilding a life in Hungary while trying to win Janós back to her (or possibly win him over for the first time?)  

I love the fact that Marta is a highly-skilled neurosurgeon, and that we also question her mental faculties as she struggles with possible delusions, or obsessions. I also love a film where you’re not really sure if things are happening in reality as they appear, or if things are skewed by the main character’s post of view. Horvát’s screenplay does that adroitly, and never swings too far in either direction. If I had seen this film before nomination time, I would have also nominated it for Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and possibly Best Movie. A real winner.

#27 – The Velvet Underground, directed by Todd Haynes (USA) – I loved this documentary. It took a subject I new relatively little about, and structured it like an indie, art-house film with talking heads, clips past performances, still images, and more to create a collage of a band, a movement, and a place in the late 60’s/early 70’s. Ostensibly this documentary told the story of legendary avant-garde rock band The Velvet Underground, known for its inclusion of Lou Reed, John Cale, and Nico. What I didn’t know was how instrumental Andy Warhol and his Factory were responsible for the launch of the band (or that they had a female drummer!) Nor was a terribly familiar with their music, other than the fact that the original version of Sweet Jane was from them. Their music intrigued me, as did their larger-than-life, diverging personalities. Haynes focuses on Reed’s and Cale’s childhoods to start, thereby painting a revealing picture of the time and what made them into the men they became.

The fascinating Nico swept into and out of the documentary, much the way she did the band. I was also fascinated by the deliberate placement of this art/rock crowd as distinctly anti-hippy despite their concurrent development. It was an outlook I had never thought about among the youth of the late 60’s. It’s not surprising that THE VELVET UNDERGROUND turned out to be such a compelling and fascinating film given its writer/director. Todd Haynes has already shown an interest in the music of a near time with his narrative feature VELVET GOLDMINE.

#26 – Wojnarowicz: F**k You F*ggot F**ker, directed by Chris McKim (USA) – Queer 80’s artist David Wojnarowicz was a contemporary of Robert Mapplethorpe and Keith Haring, but with a decidedly different outlook and more in-your-face attitude. Documentaries about art are not really my thing, but WOJNAROWICZ is an exception: a very well-made documentary that actually caught and held my attention, and made me ponder things beyond the scope of the film. Oh, and did I neglect to mention? The full title of this doc is WOJNAROWICZ: F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER, which should give you a clue as to the temperament of the film’s subject. Born in New Jersey, and physically abused by his father, Wojnarowicz fled to Manhattan as a teen and hustled to make money. From this rough background, he emerged as an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist and AIDS activist prominent in the East Village art scene. Sadly, like so many men in the 80’s, he died of complications due to the AIDS virus in 1992.

Filmmaker Chris McKim was able to sidestep the whole talking head form of doc because David documented much of his life on audiotape, both himself and his conversations with others. By marrying images of David’s artwork, and archival footage of New York in the 80’s with David’s recorded ruminations and conversations, you really got to know that scene and the artist. Interviews with gallery owners, other artists, and friends of David’s and just using the audio over older footage maintained the tone and style of the film successfully.

Two things truly resonated with me. First was the inherent dichotomy that David wrestled with where he was driven to get his art out there, and wanted it to be seen, but he loathed rich people, and the more well-known he became, the more he struggled with his success. He certainly appreciated not having to scrounge for his next meal, and his artwork benefitted from a stable home, but there was a part of him that was angry that it was all beholden to the wealthy. I was also struck by how this doc told a portrait of a young man who came of age in a radically different way than I did, due to his background and where he spent his teens and twenties, and it struck me how much environment, especially as a gay man coming of age in the 80’s, really shapes your personality. It also made me think quite about about Bruce’s life in Manhattan during the 1980’s. It’s been at least two weeks since I watched the film and it’s still lodged firmly in my brain. That’s the sign of a good documentary, how it makes you ponder your own life and the world around you. In that, and in many other ways, WOJNAROWICZ: F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER was a big success. 

It pains to see films that I thought would be in my Top 20 or even 10 when I saw them, barely make the Top 40. That speaks to the number of quality films I saw in 2021. And while the U.S. grabs another spot on the Top 40 (as well as one shared with Canada and Hungary) we’ve got representation in this batch from Mexico, Israel, and and Irish/UK co-production. Of course, what not-surprising characteristic do all these films share? A strong female protagonist.

#35 – Pieces of a Woman, directed by Kornél Mundruczó (Canada/Hungary/USA) – The English-language debut of Hungarian, Chlotrudis-nominated director Kornél Mundruczó (WHITE GOD) is a powerful if uneven portrayal of devastating loss and grief, and how that can create emotional chasms between people who love each other. The film opens spectacularly, with a nearly half-hour, real-time sequence with nary an edit to be seen. It’s a tense, slow-build sequence as Martha and Sean, are faced with the home birth they’ve been planning for for months. Of course, there’s always a hitch, and their midwife is unavailable, so a sub arrives, with calm assurances, to deliver their baby. As one might suspect from the title of the film, things do not go well, and the remainder of the film deals with how this situation affects Martha, Sean, and those around them.

“To start with, Vanessa Kirby (who I was not familiar with) really sold it for me. Her emotional reserve seemed so much more real than hysterical wailings, or outward signs of grief. Oh, the struggle is there, and Kirby lets us see it in her eyes, or in quiet outbursts aimed at those she loves. Ellen Burstyn as Martha’s mother, is the icy, emasculating mother-in-law, who definitely rises above the script (the screenplay is the films weakness) even manages to pull off a rather clumsily written and shot monolog through her skills alone. Most memorable (no surprise if you know me) is Molly Parker’s supporting role as Eva, the midwife, who ends up on trial for her actions. Her first appearance is a beautiful example of subtlety in acting, as she capably handles the home birth situation, and when things start to go a little awry, you can see it in the tiniest ways even as she calmly keeps the situation well in hand… until she doesn’t. Ultimately, despite the clumsy, heavy-handedness of parts of the screenplay, I give PIECES OF A WOMAN high marks, based on performances, Martha’s throughout and powerful story arc, and the deft filmmaking from Mundruczó and cinematographer Benjamin Loeb.

#34 – Los Lobos, directed by Samuel Kishi (Mexico) – LOS LOBOS (THE WOLVES) is a semi-autobiographical story of Lucía, a young woman who emigrates to Albuquerque from Mexico with her two children, Max, age eight, and Leo, age five. After struggling to find a trashed studio to live in, Lucía must work long hours to make money for the family to survive. Her children are given strict rules to follow, the first being they must never leave the apartment. As Lucía’s hours grow longer and longer, the boys find ways to keep themselves occupied, watching other children play in the apartment complex courtyard, speaking occasionally to the Asian landlady who shows them kindness after an initial brusque introduction, and ultimately, venturing out and making some friends, to disastrous results. With the promise of a trip to Disney hanging in the air, Lucía’s struggles threaten to overwhelm her. Through it all, the boys show remarkable resiliency, but what they need the most is love and parenting.

This is Kishi’s second feature film, and it’s spare look and feel, much of the film set in a single room, clearly demonstrates the claustrophobia and powerlessness of a young family thrust into this type of situation. The performances are very strong, from veterans actor Cici Lau (PING PONG PLAYA; LEGALLY BLONDE) as the gruff, yet kindly landlady, to both children, played by brothers, Maximiliano Nájar Márquez and Leonardo Nájar Márquez. But it’s Martha Reyes Arias who truly shines as Lucía, quietly exemplifying the near impossibility of a life with no support, huge responsibility, and no means to get through. It’s a very powerful little film, Kishi has constructed. 

#33 – Holler, directed by Nicole Reigel (USA) – Poverty is a major problem in the United States, and recent films exploring people struggling without means to live a fulfilling life have shown how little hope exists in these cases. HOLLER follows the difficult path of a high school girl, her older brother, and their mother who is incarcerated after becoming addicted to pain-killing medication.  Ruth has promise. Gifted with a natural intelligence that sees her excelling in school, Ruth could use the stability that seems like a minimal need in growing up successfully. Her brother, Blaze, watches out for her, and also tries desperately to keep up with the bills as mortgage foreclosures mount threatening to take their home. What little care and attention they get comes from Linda, their mom’s best friend and their boss at the scrap metal factory at which they both work. When Ruth finds out that Blaze had secretly submitted a college application on her behalf, and she has been accepted, she is initially upset and unwilling to leave. They don’t have the money, and despite the harsh living conditions, this film ably shows how ties of family and familiarity create an environment where leaving a bad situation seems more difficult that staying.

“Some critics have mentioned Debra Granik’s WINTER’S BONE as a touchstone for this film, which I definitely understand, but I see more recent films such as Nia DaCosta’s LITTLE WOODS or even last year’s BULL by Annie Silverstein. It’s interesting that all of these films are helmed by women, and perhaps that’s why family is such a strong component in the telling of these stories. Ruth and Blaze have a typical brother sister relationship, often superficially at odds with one another, but the love and care these two display by their actions is powerful and drive this movie forward. Riegel does a great job in spinning out a bleak tale, with the threat of violence all around, and little chance of a positive outcome, and leaving a glimmer of hope that is small, but surely not far from the dim reality faced by families such as this. Young actress Jessica Braden has already had a lengthy career in television and film, (including playing the Nosebleed Woman in THE LOBSTER), and handles the complex situation face by Ruth beautifully, with the just right amount of intelligence, resentment, and youthful bravado. Kudos too to Gus Halper as brother Blaze, and TV veteran Pamela Adlon as their imprisoned mother. And like Chris, I will call out well-known character actor Becky Ann Baker for bringing fire and experience as Linda. Her scenes are all strong. HOLLER is a strong film, and it will hopefully get a release this year.

#32 – Asia, directed by Ruthy Pribar (Israel) – Mother/daughter stories. We’ve seen a lot of them, and at first, ASIA seems like it might be a bit of a daughter taking care of an irresponsible mother reminiscent of a favorite film of mine, OR (MY TREASURE). ASIA sidesteps that path, and suddenly we think we might heading in more of a TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, or STEEL MAGNOLIAS direction. Writer/director Ruthy Pribar’s too smart for that as well. Instead, we meet Asia, a hard-working, hard-partying woman in her mid-thirties, who works long hours as a nurse, then takes private jobs doing home healthcare, to keep food on the table, and perhaps good medical insurance for her daughter, Vika. The two seem to have little in commons, as Vika hangs out at the skate park with her best friend, the more experienced Natalie, flirting with the boys and doing some teen-aged smoking and drinking. When Asia gets a call that Vika is in the emergency room in the hospital where she works, we learn that the teenager suffers from a degenerative disease, most likely muscular dystrophy (although never stated) and drinking alcohol doesn’t mix well with her medication. Once the set-up is revealed, the heart of the film begins, as the two women are forced to discover the heart of their familial relationship despite fits and starts, anger, frustration, sex, silliness, and a true bond of love that was always there, but emerges as Vika’s health continues to fail.

Pribar has written a great script, and her direction is assured, with nothing extraneous, producing a compact 85 minute film. It’s the acting that really lifts ASIA above the expected melodrama. Alena Yiv perfectly balances a young woman who had a child far too early, struggling to care for her ailing child, all while desperately trying to enjoy her own youthful needs. We never think ill of Asia, and Yiv brings her completely and three-dimensionally alive. Shira Haas, well-known for the TV miniseries ‘Unorthodox’ comes across as defiant in the face of a physically debilitating disease, yet accepting her shortened life with dignity and struggling to live every second that goes by whether it’s giggling with her mother, or watching a movie with the visiting nurse she’s attracted to. Yiv and Haas convey their loving bond so clearly with a glance, or a movement, and as the inevitable conclusion draws hear, it’s just beautiful.

#31 – Rose Plays Julie, directed by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy (Ireland/United Kingdom) – Upon reading a synopsis of ROSE PLAYS JULIE it would be tempting to try to shoehorn it into a ‘revenge-thriller’ genre. And while there is that element that inherent in the plot, it plays out more like a Greek tragedy involving parents and a child. In this case, the child is question is Rose, a young woman living in Ireland, and studying to be a vet (be warned animal lovers, there are some tough scenes in here relating to animals) who is also fully aware that she was adopted, and has a strong, loving relationship with the couple who raised her, but there has always been a curiosity of the person she would have been had the woman who gave birth to her, and put the name ‘Julia’ on her birth certificate been in the picture. Although the adoption was closed, Rose now has a name and a phone number that leads her directly to her birth mother, Ellen, a successful actor living in England. To say Rose is disappointed when Julie wants no connection with her daughter, is a bit of an understatement, so Rose actually goes to England, posing as a prospective buyer for Ellen’s home which is on the market. There she meets Ellen’s other daughter, a few year’s younger than her, and Ellen herself, where she learns that Rose was born out of a violent act that Ellen only wants to put behind her.

This revelation puts Rose on a different path, one where she tracks down her birth father, an archaeologist, and poses as an actor named Julie, who has been cast as an archaeologist in a play, to get a spot on one of his digs. As the pieces all start to come together — everything from Rose’s academic work studying euthanasia in veterinary medicine, Rose and Ellen slowly developing an actual relationship while Ellen is shooting a show in London, and ‘Julie’ becoming friendly with archaeologist, Peter — it seems pretty clear where things are heading, but things don’t go quite as planned, bringing us to a dark conclusion.

The writing/directing team of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor have delivered a elegant, well-structured fourth film together, and one that by all accounts is their most accessible. That may be true, but the pace is still deliberate, and the camera work a little on the artsy side, and it revels in the taut writing, and the strong acting by the three principals, Ann Skelly as Rose, Orla Brady as Ellen, and Aiden Gillen as Peter. This is one intriguing #MeToo drama that was actually conceived before the movement, but is handled beautifully and powerfully in a way that doesn’t take away from the horror and violence of the story, but doesn’t sensationalize it either.

Entering the Top 40, it’s getting harder and harder to rank these films. #’s 38, 39 and 40 all should have been ranked higher, except for a few noticeable flaws that pushed them further down that offset the amazing work featured in each of them. For a few of these films there is also an inherent tension of my immediate reaction after seeing the film, and how well they have sit with me as time has passed. I try to capture that immediate feeling, but the longer-term affect a film has on me is important as well. At any rate, here we go with #’s 40 down to 36.

#40 – I’m Your Man, directed by Maria Schrader (Germany) – Reading the premise of this film, which I will try to not to reveal here, you immediately thinks of some hokey, 80’s romantic comedies, that can’t compare to the emotional exploration that I’m Your Man tackles with its main character, and the interesting pathways she must follow. One particularly interesting examination comes when a research project that Alma and her team are working on is upended when another researcher half a world away publishes an article on a similar theme before her work is completed. A character, unfamiliar with human emotions wonders why this occurrence upsets Alma, as the theory she was researching was proven to be true. He wonder why this isn’t a cause for celebration as it validates her work. That competitive drive to be the first is lost on him. It’s an interesting philosophical rumination that is not often tackled in a romantic comedy.

The acting on display also elevates I’m Your Man, with British actor, Dan Stevens (so good, and so different in the television series, Legion) tackling the male lead, Tom, a character that would have been easy to take in a direction to completely derail the film, and making it somehow work. Popular German actress Sandra Hüller, plays a similar supporting character for laughs, and is utterly delightful. Where the film runs slightly off the rails, is the inevitable denouement. Director and adapter Schrader treads lightly where Alma must come to a realization that runs counter to much of what makes her character what it is. Schrader sets this up nicely and leaves it hanging, and for the viewer to decide, which is as best a conclusion that we can ask for. Just who is Alma’s man, is something for us to decide.

#39 – Adrienne, directed by Adrienne Ostroy (USA) – I am a huge admirer of the work of actor/director Adrienne Shelley, so was naturally drawn to this documentary directed by her husband. As a celebration of her life, and career, this film excels. Shelley got her start as an actress in the early films of Hal Hartley, starring in The Unbelievable Truth, and Trust. From there she went on to act in a string of mediocre or bad films throughout the late 80’s and 90’s. She had the waifish look for those films, but she was too smart to do that for long, and she eventually followed her true passion, directing. Her first feature, released in 1996, was Sudden Manhattan, a quirky, low-budget Woody Allen pastiche that showed some promise but didn’t really make much of a splash. Her subsequent short film, Lois Live a Little, received considerable acclaim and led to her next feature, I’ll Take You There, a more accomplished romantic comedy that showed what she was capable of. She was on the cusp of major success, with her third feature, Waitress, when she was tragically murdered in her Manhattan office, but a construction worker who tried to make it look like a suicide.

It’s here where Adrienne stumbles a bit. I understand director Ostroy’s need to explore the event that upended his life and that of his daughter, but at times it borders a little too closely to one of those tabloid news shows. Ultimately finds his closure when he is allowed to visit Shelley’s murderer in prison. The assortment of friends, family, and co-workers who are interviewed for the film paint a beautiful picture of this remarkable woman. From those took on her legacy to create the hit Broadway musical based on Waitress like Sara Bareilles, to Hal Hartley, who helped her get her start.

#38 – Mass, directed by Fran Kranz (USA) – Right from the very beginning there’s something vaguely stilted and manipulative about MASS. Maybe it’s the way they try to build up so much tension using extraneous characters just to make the film more than just four people in a room. It’s a meeting of two couples, one pair of whom lost their son in a school shooting, and the other pair whose son was the shooter. I’m not sure how you write a 110 minute film on that kind of meeting and not make it a little manipulative and stilted. What you do to make it all work, is hire some really strong actors who can carry the audience through the awkwardness and the emotional manipulation on the convincing power of their acting. These actors do not shy away from the intensity — they embrace it. The emotions these characters are feeling are so complex, so tangled, and the four powerhouse performers convey all of that. I was expecting a lot from the women. Martha Plimpton isn’t used enough, and she’s like a secret weapon when she’s given a good part. She brings it home beautifully here, and for her performance alone, i would have thoroughly enjoyed this film, but Ann Dowd has proven over the past 5 – 10 years that she is a force to be reckoned with, and she does so again here as the mother of the shooter — the most openly emotional and shattered in many ways. The men surprised me. Jason Isaacs has the showy role. He’s one of the guys, and he’s the one who veers toward anger, all the while strangling on the emotions he can barely restrain. Isaacs does a pretty good job reigning things in to a simmering, but powerful level, and only succumbs to showiness briefly. Reed Birney, often stealing attention as a character actor in the Beth Grant way, is the surprise for me in MASS. His tightly wound, restrained delivery can come across as cold, but look at his eyes, and the haunted, haggard look he’s sharing with the audience. This is a man who’s broken inside.

“It’s an interesting tale for a first time feature writer/director to tackle, and Kanz gets away with it largely because he is first and foremost, an actor, with dozens of TV and movie credits on his resume. He clearly knows what an actor needs to work in a film like this, and he gives it to his cast. If it is a few of the choices he makes in the writing and direction that you want to quibble with, so be it. My only real problem with the films comes right at the end, where there is some spirituality forced into play for little reason. Kanz, for the most part, stays out of the way, and allows his actors to take us on an intense journey for nearly two hours, and i must say I was with them all the way. 

#37 – Two Of Us, directed by Filippo Meneghetti (France/Luxembourg/Belgium) – I saw this film over two years ago, an the fact that it has stayed with me for so long is a testament to the skill and power it has to tell it story. Two older, retired women who have been romantically involved for the past twenty years live in neighboring apartments. They plan to move to Italy to live out the remainder of their lives together now that Madeleine has become a widow. The problem is, she hasn’t told her adult son and daughter yet, and she’s having trouble with it. When a change in circumstance threatens to tear them apart, both defy incredible odds to be together. Powerful script, great direction and wonderful acting. Much praise has been lauded justifiably upon Barbara Sukowa, but I was particularly impressed by Martine Chevallier, in a very challenging role, who had to convey so much without speaking. Like Twilight’s Kiss, it’s nice to see a film about gay older adults.

#36 – The Outside Story, directed by Casimir Nozkowski (USA) – Charles is a Brooklyn video editor who creates memorial videos about people who have the potential to die soon, for TMC. He’s also stuck. He just found out his girlfriend, Isha, cheated on him with a woman, he’s asked her to move out, and he hasn’t really left the house in a while. When he accidentally locks himself out of his 2nd story apartment in his socks, he realizes that he has to interact with the people in his neighborhood to navigate the rest of the day until he is able to get a key dropped off by the landlord. Naturally the people that make up his community are quirky, but they are also generally good people. Whether it’s the pre-teen girl who lives above him, or the police officer handing out parking tickets up and down his street. He gets reluctant help from his catty, third-floor neighbor for whom Charles interrupts a threesome with a visiting Swedish couple, and he in turn helps out the 70-year-old recent widow who lives next door to sign up on a dating app. Ultimately, he learns form his community and moves onto a hopefully better life.

It’s a simple story, and honestly, sometimes the simplest stories are the best stories. This is a film that I really wanted to be higher on my list, but it’s just that good a year for films. Bryan Tyree Henry is a lovely Charles. Known for his comedic work, which he excels at here as well, he’s also a great dramatic actor, and able to shed a tear when needed. He’s slightly irritating, but in an amusing way that makes him fun to spend time with. His beautiful, soon-to-be-ex, Isha, is played calmly, and beautifully by Star Trek: Discovery’s Shonequa Martin-Green, who builds on her great television work to great effect. Other strong performers include Sunita Mani’s Officer Slater, Olivia Edwards’ upstairs neighbor Elena, and Michael Cyril Creighton. First time feature director Casimir Nozkowski has written an effective character study that is funny and rings true He really hits all the right notes. And Brooklyn looks gorgeous… warm and inviting like any good community should.