Set in the early 90s, this extraordinary collective portrait -whose subjectivity refers to certain past community experiences in a decadent key- is a modest prodigy of narrative economy supported by some perfect editing and a formidable cast. In his fifth film, Silver makes his style invisible by camouflaging with the characters, and chooses a home-video texture that refers to the time the film is set in. In a small therapeutic community for former addicts located in New Jersey, men and women survive their past anyway they can, which includes the obligatory individual psychodrama in which the members refresh their traumas while they film each other. After the celebration of a wedding between two members from the collective, the unexpected and subsequent incorporation of a young woman in the house alters the fragile balance of the place. The fact that the shoot itself led the actors to actually live together explains the effectiveness of the improvisations and Silver’s magnificent capability of capturing fleeting gestures from his performers. The director was also able to conjure cruelty and lovingly accompany his lost creatures. RK
Section: PanoramaD: Nathan Silver
G: Nathan Silver, Jack Dunphy
F: Adam Ginsberg
E: Stephen Gurewitz
DA: Britni West
S: Arjun G. Sheth
M: Paul Grimstad
P: Rachel Wolther
PE: Diane Lanyi, Jere B. Ford, Glen Wolther, Donna Rosen, RJ Beavers
CP: Stinking Heaven
Deragh Campbell, Hannah Gross, Keith Poulson, Eléonore Hendricks, Tallie Medel
Stinking Heaven. Nathan Silver
T +1 347 786 3329 W stinkingheaven.com
TW @StinkingHeaven
He was born in Massachusetts, USA, in 1983. He attended the Tisch Art School of the University of New York. He wrote and directed The Blind (2009), Exit Elena (2012; Bafici ‘13) and Soft in the Head (Bafici ‘13).
05 May 2015
25 April 2015
25 April 2015
