In the wake of a brief, but intense relationship with Shaina, David struggles to find the same connection with Cara, his new flame and Shaina's former best friend.In the wake of a brief, but intense relationship with Shaina, David struggles to find the same connection with Cara, his new flame and Shaina's former best friend.In the wake of a brief, but intense relationship with Shaina, David struggles to find the same connection with Cara, his new flame and Shaina's former best friend.
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I don't think I've seen a film before that is as real and easy to relate to as "Natural Causes" is. It was exactly what we all go through at some point or another. The trials and tribulations that seem so specific and completely our own happen to everyone whether or not we want to admit it. It was great to be able to "live" experiences like that with the characters on the screen and an entire theater of people. Most people go through relationships thinking what they feel is completely unique and no one can even fathom even a portion of the joy or pain they experience. While that may be true in some respects because what one feels can never exactly be felt by another, there are parallels and situations that everyone goes through. If you put ten people in a room and have each tell their best and worst relationship experience and each person will completely relate and agree with each person while still holding onto their own feelings knowing they are different. This film made me realize that as awful as a breakup or bad relationship can be, there's a kind of comfort in knowing you're not the only one who's dealt with it. It was an amazing look into something so raw and human, a film anyone can relate to because everyone has been every character in it at some point.
Jerzy Gwiazdowski (David) and Leah Goldstein (Cara) co-star in a heartwarming romantic drama as twenty-something young adults who meet quite randomly, flirt, date, get intimate, break up, and question their future.
The directing/writing/producing triumvirate of brothers Alex and Paul Cannon and Michael Lerman conceived "Natural Causes" after their own failed relationships. During a pivotal scene about halfway through the film, Kate MacCluggage (Amy) tells Gwiazdowski's David that early relationships are meant to fail to provide a backdrop for reflection and compatibility.
I watched "Natural Causes" as part of Boston's International Film Festival, and while understanding that the film was intended as a series of vignettes of a relationship interrupted by black screens to signify elapsed time, I would have enjoyed the film more if the blackness was either shorter or nonexistent. I was struck by the amazing cinematography and location shoots throughout the New York-based film, but there were a few outdoor scenes that were very choppy due to unsteady hand cameras; this sort of footage reminded me of "The Blair Witch Project." Aside from some of the camera shots and the blackness in between the vignettes, my only other complaint is the soundtrack appeared music-intensive. While some music was appropriate to set a scene or segue into another scene, there were other points when music was played for no apparent reason.
I did enjoy many aspects of symbolism, such as the sound of heavy thunder to accompany relationship conflict and scenes of David and Cara driving on a very curvy road to signify their unknown future, neither one knowing what's behind the next curve.
The directing/writing/producing triumvirate of brothers Alex and Paul Cannon and Michael Lerman conceived "Natural Causes" after their own failed relationships. During a pivotal scene about halfway through the film, Kate MacCluggage (Amy) tells Gwiazdowski's David that early relationships are meant to fail to provide a backdrop for reflection and compatibility.
I watched "Natural Causes" as part of Boston's International Film Festival, and while understanding that the film was intended as a series of vignettes of a relationship interrupted by black screens to signify elapsed time, I would have enjoyed the film more if the blackness was either shorter or nonexistent. I was struck by the amazing cinematography and location shoots throughout the New York-based film, but there were a few outdoor scenes that were very choppy due to unsteady hand cameras; this sort of footage reminded me of "The Blair Witch Project." Aside from some of the camera shots and the blackness in between the vignettes, my only other complaint is the soundtrack appeared music-intensive. While some music was appropriate to set a scene or segue into another scene, there were other points when music was played for no apparent reason.
I did enjoy many aspects of symbolism, such as the sound of heavy thunder to accompany relationship conflict and scenes of David and Cara driving on a very curvy road to signify their unknown future, neither one knowing what's behind the next curve.
Natural Causes is the story about a relationship, and is punctuated by numerous one-liners and humorous scenes to add some much-needed levity, but it is not your average romantic comedy.
The romance in Natural Causes is presented in a series of slices. Nearly every one holds a biting, often awkward core of truth that anyone who has been through a relationship will recognize. While they are nearly universal themes, these are the things we rarely talk about, and rarely see on screen: the awkward coldness of a conversation in which one of the participants is too distracted to care, or an attempt to displace relationship strife with lovemaking that fails after one half-hearted kiss. While these scenes can be a bit of a downer, audience members who have had similar experiences will find them almost comfortable despite their awkwardness, and bordering on nostalgic (provided the viewer is thinking back to a long-ago folly with perfect hindsight and not nursing a harrowing recent breakup).
You can do naught but root for the main characters as they travel the length and breadth of a multi-year relationship, knowing that the mistakes they make are sometimes classic, and that at the same time, they can do nothing else but make them. Where else but in a relationship are we each, one and all, seemingly destined to make the same mistakes over and over again? When all is said and done, even these mistakes can't be pointed to as the true reason for the couple's troubles. Indeed, some relationships simply meet their demise when their number is up.
The movie is well written and acted, especially by it's principle actors, Jerzy Gwiazdowski and Leah Goldstein. Filmed on a shoestring budget in record time, the sound and camera work does suffer in some places, especially in outdoor scenes and shots involving lots of movement. Overall, an excellent first offering from Cannon, Lerman and Cannon.
The romance in Natural Causes is presented in a series of slices. Nearly every one holds a biting, often awkward core of truth that anyone who has been through a relationship will recognize. While they are nearly universal themes, these are the things we rarely talk about, and rarely see on screen: the awkward coldness of a conversation in which one of the participants is too distracted to care, or an attempt to displace relationship strife with lovemaking that fails after one half-hearted kiss. While these scenes can be a bit of a downer, audience members who have had similar experiences will find them almost comfortable despite their awkwardness, and bordering on nostalgic (provided the viewer is thinking back to a long-ago folly with perfect hindsight and not nursing a harrowing recent breakup).
You can do naught but root for the main characters as they travel the length and breadth of a multi-year relationship, knowing that the mistakes they make are sometimes classic, and that at the same time, they can do nothing else but make them. Where else but in a relationship are we each, one and all, seemingly destined to make the same mistakes over and over again? When all is said and done, even these mistakes can't be pointed to as the true reason for the couple's troubles. Indeed, some relationships simply meet their demise when their number is up.
The movie is well written and acted, especially by it's principle actors, Jerzy Gwiazdowski and Leah Goldstein. Filmed on a shoestring budget in record time, the sound and camera work does suffer in some places, especially in outdoor scenes and shots involving lots of movement. Overall, an excellent first offering from Cannon, Lerman and Cannon.
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- TriviaKate MacCluggage's debut.
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- Runtime1 hour 31 minutes
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- 1.85 : 1
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