Jason says: “There
are a lot of actors where following the usual advice to ‘write what you
know’ will not get them the noteworthy part they crave; former Detroit
landlord Nickola Shreli is not one of them. He has probably never been
in the sort of binds that his character has, but he and director Malik
Bader have built a tense little film about an under seen environment,
so it was at least a good starting place.
“The movie itself doesn’t start in a great place, as Elvis Martini
(Shreli) sets a fire in a building he owns for the insurance, only to
realize with horror that his wife is inside. Two years later, he’s
raising his daughter alone and quite broke: The bank is threatening to
foreclose on his other building, being a fellow Albanian-American will
only get him so far with the loan shark he owes ten grand, his daughter
Lena is out of school because he can’t pay the tuition, and one of the
only two of his tenants that will pay the rent on time is using the
basement to grow weed. When he evicts Rolexa (Maia Noni), a call girl
who hasn’t paid her rent in three months, he finds a bag of cash that
won’t completely get him out from under, but will go a long way.
Except, of course, that this would be the first time in movie history
that taking a bag of money that’s just lying around would keep things
from getting much, much worse.
“The filmmakers take their time getting there, though that’s not
something to complain about. Neighborhoods that are at least partly
ethnic enclaves like the Hamtramck area of Detroit have personalities
and rhythms that the audience needs to get used to, and getting to know
the world that ‘Visi’ lives in and his place in it is an important part
of the movie. It also gives the filmmakers time to plant that Elvis
isn’t really taking things seriously enough in the viewer’s head,
letting both a fondness for the character and the possibility that
things will go very wrong build simultaneously.
“At least, I suspect that many will grow fond of the flawed Elvis.
Shreli invests him with a friendly, upbeat personality – he seems to
genuinely like most people, and even his occasional snarkiness seems
more like friendly ribbing than actual disdain – that has a bit of a
flip side as it tends toward laziness or otherwise taking the easy way
out. It packs the guilt over his wife’s death down tight, but even the
explosions when someone mentions it feel unforceful – not half-hearted,
but too diffuse to really do much damage. And as things go to hell in
the second half of the movie, Shreli makes sure that, as much as this
is a focusing event for Elvis, it’s not one that immediately redefines
who he is. He’s panicked even if he’s acting decisively, not suddenly
brilliant. There’s amiability to this guy, able to overshadow if not
erase his potential for fierceness, but always the nagging sense that
you shouldn’t count on him.
“That’s going to be rough, because the last act puts him in a nearly
impossible situation, and Shreli and Bader do an excellent job of
cranking up the tension. Just as with the first half of the movie and
its slice-of-life tendencies, there’s never a moment that rings false
here as each demand made on Elvis and each problem he creates for
tomorrow to deal with today feels like the logical next step. That’s
doubly impressive because the climax are not grounded at all – late
addition to the action Stivi Paskoski plays his gangster as sadistic
and really willing to go that extra mile to be cruel in a way that
serves as a direct counter to Elvis in many ways. The final
confrontation is kind of shockingly over-the-top and impressively
bloody, but probably works best because saving Lena is going to require
Elvis to think one step ahead for once in his life, and who knows if he
can do that?
“Bader makes a great picture out of Shreli’s script. Things seem a bit
shaky early – literally, in the case of the prologue – but he and his
collaborators do an excellent job building a story out of small bits
that add up to plenty more. The group shows Detroit in kind of rough
shape but not the ruins often used to depict the city, which is a nice
change. Bader and cinematographer Christos Moisides go for a widescreen
frame, which is a somewhat unusual choice for a relatively contained
story, but fill it well without making things larger than life. They
also capture very different feelings for day and night.
“Shreli wrote himself a pretty good part, and Bader made it into a nice
movie, especially for not having a lot of resources at their disposal.
The heavily Albanian-American cast gives it a different feel, even if
it’s a story that has a lot of the expected basics. 4.25 cats
“Seen 23 July 2015 in the J.A. de Sève Cinema (Fantasia
International
Film Festival, DCP)” |
