Stinking Heaven

I can somewhat understand the enthusiasm for Nathan Silver's Stinking Heaven, and his body of work in general, but I have to say it represents a trend in Cinema I wish would go away. In the specific case of SH, the performances, narrative, and at times camera work and editing, are pretty skillfully crafted. The film succeeds at evoking the early 90's time period, and does a reasonably good job of creating the drama of a sober living house. (At times things get a bit maudlinly over the top, enough yelling, screaming, and scenery chewing to make Tony Montana proud. To be fair, if you've ever spent time in or around sober living homes, it's not totally misplaced.) Nathan Silver clearly has some skill as a filmmaker. His first feature, The Blind, a very ambitious endeavor shot by a top notch DP, with strong actors, did not always work as a film. But it was certainly a glimpse of his potential. Made on a budget that would total almost all his films since, it certainly did not enjoy the festival or distribution success of his subsequent ouvre such as: Exit Elena, Soft in the Head, Uncertain Terms, and the best of the bunch Stinking Heaven. However, it had something these films lack imo, that is real ambition. Getting with the trend, still going after a decade plus, of the whole minimalist, mumblecore bowel movement each film deals in the microcosm of daily living mined by other auteurs like Joe Swanberg (completely devoid of talent other than sporting a classic Frankenstein, box style hair cut) and the Duplass Bros. I must say I think Mr. Silver is more talented Filmmaker than these guys but we won't get to see his real potential fully realized because he's found some validation following this trend.

While this film is certainly worthwhile, I'd like to see Nathan Silver do something a tad more dynamic, following up on the daring of his first feature rather coast on a tired, overwrought trend that has certainly run its course....

This film assaulted my senses in an unpleasant way. Obnoxious noises, nausea inducing visuals, could almost smell the characters.

I didn't enjoy watching this. I didn't get anything positive out of the experience. I'm not going to pretend to see the point of this film. I've basically already forgotten it.

I was quite sleepy while watching which didn't help. It was like an awful sickly fever dream. Just gross and nasty and un-fun.

Greetings again from the darkness. This narrative entry at the Oak Cliff Film Festival takes place in a sober living commune located in Passaic, New Jersey around 1990. It's a live-in self-help environment that seems to do everything but help, and probably not far removed from the "protective" environments offered by Jim Jones, Charles Manson and David Koresh.

The rules of the house, as administered by married couple Jim (Keith Poulson) and Lucy (Deragh Campbell) make complete sense on the index card, but seem to have little effect on the residents. Kicking off with a marriage ceremony between two members of the group, followed by a family style dinner … the story follows the same path of the origin of the word "Honeymoon" as told by the groom. We see the peak of happiness and then follow the slow descent in bleakness.

Part of the "therapy" involves filming cruel reenactments of life's low point for each of the recovering addicts. Remember, these aren't just flawed individuals, but rather deeply damaged emotionally. They are each weak and insecure, and these emotions make for a tension-packed living environment … hardly one that promotes any type of healing.

Director Nathan Silver's ensemble cast is very strong, especially Tallie Medel and Hannah Gross … both offering hope for future projects. Having never been an addict, I can't imagine how tough it must be to get clean and stay clean; however, my instincts tell me that group living in a home that makes their own fermented tea in the bathtub may not be the best solution.

It's funny when you come across a film this good with such a low imdb rating. Saw this film at a Mezzanine screening a little while back, q&a with Nathan, moderated by Jonathan Lethem. Was taken completely off guard by it in the most pleasant way. Not exactly sure why I'm leaving this review other than the fact that it feels totally disrespectful and misunderstood to have such a low rating here. Never mind any newfound relevancy of the cast (as amazing and talented as they are, and as much as they make the film what it is...), the film stands on its own as a masterpiece. If you're a fan of Cassavetes or the Dogma 95 films you will likely love and respect this film. At the very least it will jibe.

Here's the plot. A group home for a bunch of psychotic socially inept borderline insane asylum characters. And they are to address their personal problems by acting out their feelings and role playing. And all this is overseen by the head wack-o Jim who imagines himself as some sort of psycho therapist.

If you want to watch a bunch of - I wanna be an actor - types make fools of themselves and label it acting then this flick is just the thing. I didn't quite understand what I was watching at first. Then it became clear. Somebodys home project to break into cinema school maybe? I don't really know.

Each character needed their pills and I guess mr director locked them up and would not hand them out until the project was finished. Save yourself and don't bother to suffer this flick of a bunch of suffering actors trying to get their pills. Just take your pills and go outside for an hours walk - you'll be better for it!