Stinking Heaven

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!

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.

Director Nathan Silver has created a remarkable cinematic achievement with this film. It's a tight intense comedic drama that explores interpersonal relations and examines different characters places within a group dynamic. The entire cast gives wonderful performances that transcends conventional dramatic linearity and instead express deeper aspects of existence. The film functions as a mirror or a window through which the spectator can see deeper truths regarding group harmony versus individual distress and the performative sides to different forms of living ones life.

The cinematography works great in how it explores and disseminates individuals as well as the collective relationships and the performances from the actors, who are phenomenal over all. The use of music works really great as well.

Nathan Silver has created something really special with this form of artistic expression. Especially in how he manages to infuse the tragedy of this particular commune with loads of humour, all while maintaining a mood that's both lucid and surreal at the same time. He's without a doubt one of the most interesting directors working in American cinema today. I sense that he has the possibility to make a veritable masterpiece in his future.

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....

Bunch of sick people thinking they are on some healing path but only getting sicker