NOTICE TO QUIT (2024)

September 26, 2024

Greetings again from the darkness. The distance between desperation and hopelessness can sometimes be very narrow, although desperate folks can make for interesting story characters thanks in part to the unexpected actions one can take when not thinking clearly. In his first feature film, writer-director Simon Hacker tackles a desperate man, only he kicks things up a notch by including a surprise visitor.

Andy Singer (Michael Zegen, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) is our desperate man. His landlord is promising to evict him if he doesn’t pay four months of back rent by the end of the day. Andy is sweating from both the sweltering city heat as well as the pressure to close a deal and pay his rent. Just when he is frazzled to the hilt, his ten-year-old daughter Anna (Kasey Bella Suarez) pops in unexpectedly. Living full time with her mother (Andy’s ex-wife), Anna craves time with her dad before she relocates from NYC to Florida with her mom … not recognizing her bad timing.

Andy loves his daughter, yet has no clue on how to be a father to the exceptionally bright youngster. On top of that, he has no time to devote to her today as his life is falling apart. Andy was once an actor, and gets recognized periodically for a toothpaste advertisement he did. However, these days he’s scrambling as a leasing agent in the city, while also scamming a few bucks on the side with a shady appliance reseller. In other words, Andy is a hustler with no game.

Anna tags along all day, and Andy even tries to use her to his advantage a couple of times. She so wants a normal family that she’ll do anything to help dad. The two of them work in a stop to see Andy’s dad (Robert Klein), and it’s a reminder that things are tough (and hot) all over. The day works out about how you’d expect for a guy like Andy (it’s not a Lifetime Channel movie), and by day’s end, he wonders if he deserves the love Anna shows him … or is he simply the sweaty guy in a coffee-stained dress shirt trying to make ends meet.

On a side note, for any sports fans out there, retired NBA player Gordon Hayward is a Producer on the film (it’s his first film credit)

In theaters on September 27, 2024

WATCH THE TRAILER

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Posted by David Ferguson

FRANCES HA (2013)

May 30, 2013

frances ha1 Greetings again from the darkness. All the critics are raving about it. Love abounds for the latest from director Noah Baumbach and his co-writer and leading lady Greta Gerwig. What makes my ambivalence even more confounding is that I’m a fan of Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) and Gerwig (Greenberg). The expert level of filmmaking and acting is obvious, the script details and dialogue are exceptional, and the situations and setting are realistic. So why aren’t I more excited about this one? That’s what I’ve spent the past few days wondering.

It seems Frances Ha delivers everything I look for in an indie film. The problem is that I find almost every character to be annoying and self-absorbed. The first act finds Frances (Gerwig) sitting on top of the world. She has a boyfriend, a frances ha2BFF/roomie, and is a dance company apprentice with the expectation of a dance career. Soon enough she watches Strike Three go by and her world is in a tailspin. We then watch Frances trudge on through uncertainty and instability in living arrangements, personal relationships and career path. It plays like a road trip that really never hits the highway.

Frances moves in with Lev (Adam Driver) and Ben (Michael Zegen) and she is oblivious to Ben’s interest as she obsesses about her former BFF Sophie (Mickey Sumner). See, Sophie is trying to grow up while Frances wants to stay in her dream land where she and Sophie remain “the same person with different hair“. Frances then crashes at the apartment of a fellow dancer played with all seriousness by Grace Gummer (Meryl Streep’s daughter). The two dancing opposites attend an awkward frances ha3dinner party at which Frances manages to spew an endless stream of absurd remarks that advertise her lack of maturity. Her response to this is to take a spontaneous trip to Paris … charged to a new credit card.

Make no mistake. Frances is a very energetic and sincere free-spirited twenty-seven year old. The kind that is only charming in the movies. If her quirk wins you over, you will find yourself rooting for her to get her life together. That would put you in the same corner as most other film critics. On the other hand, if you recognize the optimism, but are unmoved by the immaturity and self-absorption, then you are banished to the corner of those who “just don’t get it”. And I’ll be right there with you.

SEE THIS MOVIE IF: you can revel in the quirky world of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and find joy in a flirtateous take on Lena Dunham’s “Girls”

SKIP THIS MOVIE IF: annoyingly self-centered people talking a lot about themselves and other things of which they know little, inspires you to request a refund.

watch the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqMaeBtK9TA

 

 

 

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Posted by David Ferguson