The Safdie Brothers certainly served their apprenticeship. Their 2009 film "Daddy Longlegs" (aka "Go Get Some Rosemary"), is as independent and as close to 'cinema verite' as American cinema gets and its study of a deadbeat father's relationship with his sons is full of an improvisatorary feeling where the players don't so much act their parts as live them; we could be watching a documentary.
There's no plot, just a series of nicely observed slices of life filmed on the streets of the Safdie's native New York and showing all the promise of early Scorsese. Where it falls down is in its lack of any kind of substantial drama not, of course, that great drama happens very much in everyday life but after a certain length of time people-watching can become a tad dull. What sustains the film is the superbly naturalistic performance of Ronald Bronstein as the father, (he was also one of the film's co-writers). A newcomer, it's almost impossible to say where Bronstein ends and his character begins. He's wonderful in the part but he's also the kind of man I would cross the street to avoid, lacking as he does any sense of responsibility. The kids, too, are excellent, again not so much 'acting' as simply playing extentions of themselves. The film itself comes over as a cross between autobiography and homage and is a little too personal for mass consumption. It's sufficiently good that I wish I liked it more.
