This brand new film, How to Follow Strangers is an absolute blockbuster, with superb, intense, masterful actors throughout all , in this story about an independent minded, twenty something girl with a sort of action plan in the making for something great, and this likewise twenty something aged and minded guy, trying to make it in New York City, where the social scene exerts plenty of pressure, that is all on top of trying to juggle work schedules and paddle through some mired emotional swamps, where some seemingly different GPS tracking paths bring them into a seemingly serendipitous collision of their two lives.
While each is caught up in their own whirlwind of personal tribulations,I assure you, you just can't take your eyes, and mind off of any of it for the whole movie. Chioke Nassor writer and director has more than captured the essence of the greater meaning of life in a now friendly big old New York City; in which he's exchanged your movie ticket for an all day pass into your own heart and mind.
I had the privilege of seeing the very first showing of "How to Follow Strangers", right here this June 2013, in New York City at the L.E.S. Film Festival, at the 145 East Houston Street Theatre, and you should demand your local movie theater to get this movie playing in your town right away.
Chioke Nassor's bright and at once subtle approach, brings us without delay right into the minds and lives of Ellie, (actress Ilana Glaser) who doubles as an untoward environmental cause sidewalk canvasser and Casey (actor Chris Roberti) the no-longer-a-madmen-ad-executive-not-quite-the quintessential cab driver. Director Nassor's perfect framing brings you real up close to the intense work of Glaser and Roberti, yet though you are feeling so close that you are like friend who can care without interfering, their acting is so intense that you want to reach out and grab them for a sit down, because, yes, you know you could help them somehow, someway. The dialog is all real, all life, all what we do daily, and Ilana Glaser brings us into her world of 'can't give it up', and I just can't take this anymore, with perfect timing; she is bright and cheery, in one ecstatic moment and trying to decide whether to pull her hair out in frustration the next, and it's all so real because most of us have been there, or still are there.
There's plenty of laughter too in all this intensity. The whole audience broke out at least a dozen times in hearty guffaws, (but those funny scenes are better left undescribed, so you can just experience all new, like that joyful unboxing of your new Steve inspired thingee). Yet like real life, the funny moments are just there among the twisting of our difficult situations.
Chris Roberti's Casey has us wondering whether he's coming or going or just plain ignoring everyone on purpose. He carries his curly headed everybody wants him portrayal into the subways, and the café, and the bars, and has us teetering with him on numerous brinks, such as on his walk up apartment staircase as his former girlfriend, (actress Kelly McCreary) stops by to pick up her 'things'. McCreary, at a prior party with friends, has a classic scene stealer, putting her disdain upon Nassor's smashed-like camera lens, and Nassor takes you there, like your commute past a smoky hood busted radiator in a traffic tying fender bender, you get a drive by view of her ' what the heck are you doing to me?' look, and McCreary's got you in the what for, right along with her.
Two more things before you find a way to see this as soon as you can: Ellie's sidewalk supervisor Tom is a pure screen joy to behold (actor Dan Shaked), as his long, blond, bandanna tied, dreads hang and sweep over Ellie's head, way too close for comfort, but they'll tickle your funny bone as well, until the great scene where the whole audience groaned out loud! The girl seated next to me actually blurted, "Oh, please No!". I really cannot recall a movie with this much audibly loud reaction, but more than that, the story gallops and glides, pushes and slides, rushes and compresses, and yet also takes you into a peaceful rest as Ellie sits a moment or three with her downstairs neighbor Anne, exquisitely portrayed in a truly gem screen performance by (actress Eunice Anderson), who wows Ellie and you with the truth, the pain, and the simplicity of her 90 years on earth, and what brought her through it all.
It's truly an outstanding movie from the opening scene of two young people connecting in a lovely, gentle kiss that gets interrupted by the most typical and funny kind of 'hold that thought' moments, all the way to the very surprise ending, that will leave you remembering this film, retelling Ellie and Casey's conversation, wanting to see it again, and thinking about what you might want to make different in your own life.
How to Follow Strangers: What a great movie, that I humbly submit to you is worthy of becoming a true classic. Get to it, and let it get to you, and get to your own get it into gear action plan.
