Wednesday, March 20, 2013

1818 - Amy George


The two guys that made this film (Yonah Lewis & Calvin Thomas) were part of what inspired me to make Sex After Kids through crowd-funding.  I contributed to their new film and part of that was the DVD for this one, which arrived today much to my excitement.
I'm not going to get into how awesome it is that two people as young as these filmmakers not only made something but got it into TIFF.  That's been written about.  If you head over to the film's website they self-describe it as a "dimly-lit, glacially-paced movie experience", and while that description isn't wrong, it doesn't do the film justice (and points to them for realizing that their film fits into a niche). 
The film is about a young boy at the age where young boys aren't all that likeable.  And here they've got a tremendous performance out of Gabriel del Castrillo Mullally.  The idea of working with someone this young would terrify most filmmakers, but this film wisely builds a performance around it.  I loved the real-life-couple parents played by Claudia Day and Don Kerr. 
Visually the film is lovely, and the soundtrack flows wonderfully along with it.  I can't say that this is the type of film that I generally love, but when I'm in the right mood it can be just the right thing.  This is also the kind of film that I think requires a few repeat viewings to enjoy the subtleties.  It's not easy subject matter, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's worth checking out and I hope it gets a wider release.  I look forward to seeing what Yonah and Calvin pull off with their next opus.

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