Tilt

An unemployed documentary filmmaker (Joseph Cross)'s behavior becomes increasingly erratic in the months after his wife becomes pregnant.

This film is something like the next generation answer to "Falling Down". A man is stressed out by his life, and it manifests itself in ways that are not really helpful to society. However, whereas Michael Douglas simply became increasing violent, our protagonist here also seems to be heading in a direction of mental derangement, and the viewer may not always be able to predict what will happen next. This subtle difference is what would make "Tilt" a so-called "genre" film, but "Falling Down" not so much.

What also makes the protagonist interesting to watch (and really, this is essentially a character study) is his own inflated sense of self. He goes through the struggle and stress of compromise with his wife, and this is really laid bare when he confronts another man and asks that man about his single status. We are then informed that a dichotomy exists: marriage or freedom. Our protagonist chose marriage, and therefore (under these limited guidelines) sees that he has forfeited his freedom.

And his ambition may be ill-placed. While he is certainly knowledgeable and passionate about his film deconstructing the fallacy of the "American Golden Age", he also seems to have delusions of being the next Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn. He is ironically convinced that there is great commercial value in anti-capitalist material. And while that may be true, the ideas of America's "war profiteering" or "evolved propaganda" are already out there. He would be adding a whisper to a scream. (Does the viewer recall Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story"? Even with Moore's sizable influence, it had little impact.)

Then there is the Trump connection. While this inclusion of the 2016 election cycle makes for a perfect counter-balance to the anti-establishment views of our subject, it has the unfortunate side effect of making the movie sort of dated. Will it have the same impact five years from now? Though it brilliantly have me wondering if it was filmed in "real time" or after the fact, given its early 2017 release. When our subject says "the day of the blustering angry white man is over", was this scripted with the knowledge in mind that Trump had won, or still at a time when that decision was unexpected?

"Tilt" was screened at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Though it may not have been the best of the "midnight" offerings, it is still an excellent film. Anyone drawn to character studies or overtly psychological movies is encouraged to seek it out. Most likely, it will have either a wider release or appear on demand by the third quarter of the year.

It would probably be a 5 or 6, if it wasn't so pretentious. Tilt looks like it was made so that Joseph Cross could wander the city at night in a black hoodie, smoking a cigarette and trying to be emo. Some shots are dark and confusing, others hold onto meaningless objects for no real reason. But one thing you can tell right away - nothing much is going to happen in this movie, and you can relax and turn your brain off. It would actually be painful if you paid attention to the bland dialogue, Joe's forced enthusiasm about his documentary, and the complete and utter pointlessness of everything that happens in this movie.

Joe, who must be the loneliest firm-maker ever, has a boring wife, rude house guests, and nobody to call a friend so he goes around the city staring at people, scaring them by looking like he's about to kill them, and losing his temper after two bad line-readings because he's so on edge about his passion project which besides a few lines of dialogue, there is no evidence of it ever being his 'passion'. His true passion seems to be to smoke, stay up late at night, dress like a rebellious teen and hate his wife-mom.

It has some sort of political agenda probably. I don't know why else there's so much of that stuff in here. But other than that, its not really offensive or frustrating. It's a calm, do-other-things-while-this-is-on kinda movie.

Tilt is a bizzare film and one of those I went into knowing absolutely nothing. It all starts simple enough and slow burns throughout but when things happen they leave you both baffled and a little disturbed.

It tells the story of a young couple expecting their first child, they are financially struggling due to him not working and merely working on his second feature documentary. Gradually his mental state falls apart and he does acts he can't even explain himself.

For a start I was blown away with just how politically charged the movie is and I have no doubt this will upset a lot of people. Oddly however if you take a step back you could argue it being agenda spewing for both political stances.

The lead is heavily left wing, speaks openly about his hatred for Trump and the Republicans. But on the flipside our protagonist is also the antagonist so as identifying him as a "Leftist" does it not make it a right wing movie?

Regardless of it's politics and constant unexplained insistence to show crucifix imagery from start to finish it's a very unsettling movie and not in the good way.

I see what they were going for, I simply don't think it even remotely works.

The Good:

Well made for the most part

The Bad:

More dead animals

Uncomfortable viewing

Mixed political stances

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

If Shawn & Aaron Ashmore had a baby it would be Joseph Cross

This film about a struggling documentary film maker starts off giving you that warm and creepy feeling a good indie movie creates when you think something entertaining is going to appear just beyond the horizon. The acting is good and the dialogue keeps you engaged so after 30 mins. Of charachter building You figure any minute now thngs should start to unfold. Then after an hour of circling the same issues and events not bringing you any closer to this drain the directors classify as drama/ horror / thriller, you realize the movie gives you no clear or distinct reason of why the main charachter is having these problems or feelings. Being confused watching this movie even ends on that premise never showing the result of his actions leaving you blind to the cosequences. Of course we can all assume what happened but for an hour and 40 minutes of waiting just to see a couple events unfold and then its over dubs this movie as a waste of time. The best thing about this movie were the remarks he made about Donald trump a few times through out but the premise of his mindset and stress from his situation never added up to what it amounts to. So Basically the story line showcases an undeveloped psyche so watchers do not understand the charachters reasoning. Your aim was good but next time throw the dart harder so it can atleast hit the board!

I see there are a lot of negative reviews for this movie and I honestly don't get why, certainly if you rate it the lowest possible. I won't say it is the best movie ever but to watch once it's certainly decent enough. I was just a bit dissapointed by the end, that's the only part where I expected more. For the rest the movie is entertaining enough to keep you interested. Watching the main character Joseph Burns (played by Joseph Cross) losing his mind after his wife got pregnant, and this while he has issues with his project and with his political views and life in general. It's not like Falling Down where Michael Douglas lost it and became extremely violent nor like Jack Nicholson in The Shining losing it also, but there is definitely a tension, a bad tension. The other movies mentioned became cult movies and are still very good, way better than Tilt, but Tilt is just different and yet the same as a person can't cope with reality anymore. The acting was not bad, the story could have used a bit more violence to me, and a bit more explanation at the end, but it's certainly watchable and doesn't deserve those ridiculous low ratings.