Tanya Wexler's debut indie feature is a sort of "Will & Grace" for the big screen. It's a quirky road movie exploring the growing friendship between a gay man on a mission dictated by his deceased lover and a big-haired Brooklyn native who discovers her inner strength while accompanying him.
Although the film has its moments and appealing lead performances by John Benjamin Hickey and Wendy Makkena, its primary virtue is as an industry calling card for its young filmmaker, the daughter of veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler. It opens today for an exclusive engagement at New York's Quad Cinema.
Kim Powers' screenplay is not exactly strong on realism or credibility, which, perhaps, is why the press notes describe the film as a modern fairy tale. It begins with love-starved Rhonda Portelli (Makkena) driving across The Brooklyn Bridge with some friends, spotting a suicidal, naked young man with a "nice ass" dangling precariously from the bridge. He doesn't take the leap, and later she spots him at the bank where she works, mistaking him for the male stripper who she's hired for her birthday. (See what I mean about credibility problems?)
We discover that the man, Travis Furlong (Hickey), has recently lost his lover to AIDS. Through a series of plot contrivances too silly to explain, the pair find themselves traveling to Texas, where Travis has set out to fulfill a series of taped instructions left by his lover, who wants Travis to go to his hometown so the deceased man's relatives can come to terms with his sexuality and so Travis can come to terms with his grief. Naturally, during this process, Travis and Rhonda help each other with their respective emotional crises.
Trying to be a combination of screwball comedy and sensitive drama, "Finding North" traffics a little too hard in whimsy and wackiness and often suffers from a strained, artificial air that makes it difficult to be fully engaged with the characters. Fortunately, Hickey and Makkena are highly appealing performers, and their entertainingly contrasting acting styles -- the former stoically underplaying, the latter rather over the top -- help us overcome the strained plotting and dialogue.
FINDING NORTH
A Cowboy Booking International release
Director: Tanya Wexler
Screenplay: Kim Powers
Executive producer: Hal "Corky" Kessler
Producers: Steven A. Jones, Stephen Dyer
Director of photography: Michael Barrett
Editor: Thom Zimny
Production designer: James B. Smythe
Music: Cafe Noir
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Rhonda Portelli: Wendy Makkena
Travis Furlong: John Benjamin Hickey
Voice of Bobby: Jonathan Walker
Debi: Anne Bobby
Gina: Rebecca Creskoff
Mrs. Portelli: Angela Pietropinto
Mr. Portelli: Freddie Roman
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Although the film has its moments and appealing lead performances by John Benjamin Hickey and Wendy Makkena, its primary virtue is as an industry calling card for its young filmmaker, the daughter of veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler. It opens today for an exclusive engagement at New York's Quad Cinema.
Kim Powers' screenplay is not exactly strong on realism or credibility, which, perhaps, is why the press notes describe the film as a modern fairy tale. It begins with love-starved Rhonda Portelli (Makkena) driving across The Brooklyn Bridge with some friends, spotting a suicidal, naked young man with a "nice ass" dangling precariously from the bridge. He doesn't take the leap, and later she spots him at the bank where she works, mistaking him for the male stripper who she's hired for her birthday. (See what I mean about credibility problems?)
We discover that the man, Travis Furlong (Hickey), has recently lost his lover to AIDS. Through a series of plot contrivances too silly to explain, the pair find themselves traveling to Texas, where Travis has set out to fulfill a series of taped instructions left by his lover, who wants Travis to go to his hometown so the deceased man's relatives can come to terms with his sexuality and so Travis can come to terms with his grief. Naturally, during this process, Travis and Rhonda help each other with their respective emotional crises.
Trying to be a combination of screwball comedy and sensitive drama, "Finding North" traffics a little too hard in whimsy and wackiness and often suffers from a strained, artificial air that makes it difficult to be fully engaged with the characters. Fortunately, Hickey and Makkena are highly appealing performers, and their entertainingly contrasting acting styles -- the former stoically underplaying, the latter rather over the top -- help us overcome the strained plotting and dialogue.
FINDING NORTH
A Cowboy Booking International release
Director: Tanya Wexler
Screenplay: Kim Powers
Executive producer: Hal "Corky" Kessler
Producers: Steven A. Jones, Stephen Dyer
Director of photography: Michael Barrett
Editor: Thom Zimny
Production designer: James B. Smythe
Music: Cafe Noir
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Rhonda Portelli: Wendy Makkena
Travis Furlong: John Benjamin Hickey
Voice of Bobby: Jonathan Walker
Debi: Anne Bobby
Gina: Rebecca Creskoff
Mrs. Portelli: Angela Pietropinto
Mr. Portelli: Freddie Roman
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Something of a cross-cultural "After Hours", newcomer Yoshifumi Hosoya's "Sleepy Heads" is a jittery, rough-around-the-edges take on the lives of a group of transplanted Japanese neo-Bohemians attempting to take a bite out of the Big Apple.
While its plottings are fairly threadbare, the film's quirky comic sensibility and likable performances help to smooth over some of the awkward patches. Hosoya is definitely one to watch.
The picture is essentially seen through the eyes of Hiro (Eugene Nomura), an aspiring singer who has recently left behind the stress of living in Japan in the hopes of finding a freer existence in New York City, not that Manhattan has ever been defined as laid-back.
He soon takes up with a pair of underachieving roommates -- Kenta (Toshiya Nagasawa), who dreams of opening his own kendo (fencing school) but at present uses his martial-arts skills to intimidate Japanese restaurant customers who attempt to skip the bill; and Akira (Takahiro "Engin" Fujita), a dreadlocked, drugged-out flunky.
Hiro also meets the comely Akiko Sayuri Higuchi Emerson), an executive at a Japanese airline who is taken with his sincerity, much to the displeasure of her boss, Shun (Snakey Mao), who also happens to be Hiro's old high school rival.
Hiro appears to gain the upper hand when he scores tickets to "Les Miserables" and Akiko accepts the invitation; however, roommate Akira fatally o.d.'s on the night of the big date.
Afraid to call the police because of their illegal immigrant status, Kenta and Hiro decide to dispose of the body themselves, dragging it throughout town in a duffel bag in an effort to honor Akira's last wish to have his earthly remains thrown off his favorite spot on The Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.
Hosoya, who also co-wrote and lensed "Sleepy Heads", gets some fine comically tuned performances from his cast of seasoned performers and newcomers. The perpetually wide-eyed Nomura as Hiro, and Nagasawa as the gruff Kenta are particularly good; while the slim storyline nevertheless makes good use of its New York backdrop, especially during some very funny subway sequences.
Production values, like the rest of the picture, are scrappy and energetic.
SLEEPY HEADS
Phaedra Cinema
Elephant Studio/Zazou Prods. present
Yoshifumi Hosoya's film
Director Yoshifumi Hosoya
Producer Yuko Yoshikawa,
Shunji Okada, Yoshifumi Hosoya
Screenwriters Yoshifumi Hosoya,
Nick Feyz, Christo Assefi, Edwin Baker
Director of photography Yoshifumi Hosoya
Production designer Mark Helmuth
Editor Keiko Deguchi
Music Joshua Stone
Color/stereo
Cast:
Hiro Eugene Nomura
Kenta Toshiya Nagasawa
Akira Takahiro "Engin" Fujita
B.J. Nick Feyz
Akiko Sayuri Higuchi Emerson
Shun Snakey Mao
Running time -- 86 minutes
No MPAA rating...
While its plottings are fairly threadbare, the film's quirky comic sensibility and likable performances help to smooth over some of the awkward patches. Hosoya is definitely one to watch.
The picture is essentially seen through the eyes of Hiro (Eugene Nomura), an aspiring singer who has recently left behind the stress of living in Japan in the hopes of finding a freer existence in New York City, not that Manhattan has ever been defined as laid-back.
He soon takes up with a pair of underachieving roommates -- Kenta (Toshiya Nagasawa), who dreams of opening his own kendo (fencing school) but at present uses his martial-arts skills to intimidate Japanese restaurant customers who attempt to skip the bill; and Akira (Takahiro "Engin" Fujita), a dreadlocked, drugged-out flunky.
Hiro also meets the comely Akiko Sayuri Higuchi Emerson), an executive at a Japanese airline who is taken with his sincerity, much to the displeasure of her boss, Shun (Snakey Mao), who also happens to be Hiro's old high school rival.
Hiro appears to gain the upper hand when he scores tickets to "Les Miserables" and Akiko accepts the invitation; however, roommate Akira fatally o.d.'s on the night of the big date.
Afraid to call the police because of their illegal immigrant status, Kenta and Hiro decide to dispose of the body themselves, dragging it throughout town in a duffel bag in an effort to honor Akira's last wish to have his earthly remains thrown off his favorite spot on The Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.
Hosoya, who also co-wrote and lensed "Sleepy Heads", gets some fine comically tuned performances from his cast of seasoned performers and newcomers. The perpetually wide-eyed Nomura as Hiro, and Nagasawa as the gruff Kenta are particularly good; while the slim storyline nevertheless makes good use of its New York backdrop, especially during some very funny subway sequences.
Production values, like the rest of the picture, are scrappy and energetic.
SLEEPY HEADS
Phaedra Cinema
Elephant Studio/Zazou Prods. present
Yoshifumi Hosoya's film
Director Yoshifumi Hosoya
Producer Yuko Yoshikawa,
Shunji Okada, Yoshifumi Hosoya
Screenwriters Yoshifumi Hosoya,
Nick Feyz, Christo Assefi, Edwin Baker
Director of photography Yoshifumi Hosoya
Production designer Mark Helmuth
Editor Keiko Deguchi
Music Joshua Stone
Color/stereo
Cast:
Hiro Eugene Nomura
Kenta Toshiya Nagasawa
Akira Takahiro "Engin" Fujita
B.J. Nick Feyz
Akiko Sayuri Higuchi Emerson
Shun Snakey Mao
Running time -- 86 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/16/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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