Actualités

Elvira Lind on The Letter Room and Bobbi Jene and her children with Oscar Isaac: “It’s different kinds of babies. The human babies and the film babies. They tend to come at the same time somehow.”

In her Oscar-nominated Live Action Short The Letter Room, starring Oscar Isaac with John Douglas Thompson, Alia Shawkat, Brian Petsos, Tony Gillan, and Eileen Galindo, Elvira Lind explores loneliness in a variety of facets. Oscar Isaac’s poignant performance as corrections officer Richard pulls us in from the get-go. In the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, Elvira’s Bobbi Jene on performer Bobbi Jene Smith won all three Documentary Awards.

Corrections officer Richard (Oscar Isaac) in The Letter Room

The finely perceived details give The Letter Room wings. There is Cris (Petsos), a man on death row who receives the most poetic love notes from a woman named Rosita (Shawkat) and there is Jackson...

A low-budget effort set in an Italian neighborhood in New Jersey, Eric Bross' "Ten Benny" concerns the shifting fortunes of Ray (Adrien Brody), an ambitious and charismatic young man who gets in over his head.

Utterly familiar in its style, themes and presentation, it is most notable for being an early screen appearance by rising young actor Brody. (It was shot several years ago.) The reason it is being released now, several weeks before his starring appearance in the eagerly anticipated Terrence Malick film "The Thin Red Line", is apparent.

Ray is a star salesman at the local shoe store, with the title referring to slang for a shoe size -- in this case Paul Newman's, whom Ray claims as a customer. Ray has bigger plans for himself: He wants to start his own business, and to raise the capital he borrows 10 grand from a local loan shark, then bets it all on a long shot at the horse track. Needless to say, the horse doesn't come in, and Ray soon finds himself being threatened by the increasingly impatient hood.

Making matters worse is the burgeoning romantic relationship between Joanne (Sybil Temchen), Ray's long-suffering girlfriend, and his otherwise loyal best friend Mike (Michael Gallagher). Other figures in Ray's life include his friend Butchie (Tony Gillan), who keeps trying to help him despite Ray's self-destructive nature, and his father, Ray Sr. (veteran character actor Frank Vincent), who tries to shore up his failing home repair business by making fruitless cold calls.

The screenplay lapses into melodrama early on, and the characters aren't particularly interesting, but the film does convey its suburban milieu with a certain degree of accuracy and atmosphere.

Although the performances range quite a bit in quality, there's no denying Brody's appeal and burgeoning star power. His soulful gaze, displayed as frequently as possible here, almost but not quite succeeds in giving "Ten Benny" some emotional heft.

TEN BENNY

Palisades Pictures

Director: Eric Bross

Screenplay: Eric Bross, Tom Cudworth

Producers: H.M. Coakley, Eric Bross

Executive producers: Paul D. Wheaton,

Lisa Roberts, Michael Brysh

Director of photography: Horacio Marquinez

Film editor: Keith Reamer

Music: Chris Hajian

Color/stereo

Cast:

Ray: Adrien Brody

Mike: Michael Gallagher

Joanne: Sybil Temchen

Butchie: Tony Gillan

Donny: James E. Moriarty

Ray Sr.: Frank Vincent

Running time -- 98 minutes

MPAA rating: R...