{"id":13273,"date":"2016-03-16T03:45:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T07:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13273"},"modified":"2016-03-16T04:21:26","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T08:21:26","slug":"film-stinking-heaven-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13273","title":{"rendered":"Film: Stinking Heaven (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"StinkingHeaven_poster_s\"Film<\/strong>:\u00a0Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong> \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Drama \/ Black Comedy<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A suburban commune’s new member causes long seething issues among the group to emerge with special venality.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0n\/a<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Stinking Heaven<\/strong>\u2019s premise involves a suburban commune in 1990 New Jersey that\u2019s upset by the arrival of a newcomer and the gradual disintegration of the order that\u2019s kept the group together, but that\u2019s really a flexible\u00a0premise, because as it becomes rapidly clear, there\u2019s much pre-existing discontent among the men and women who make up a roughly 8 person family, and what newcomer Ann (Hannah Gross) achieves isn\u2019t discord because things are already on the downturn by the time she arrives.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no actual head of the family \u2013 democracy by peer pressure decides winners, losers, and the status quo \u2013 there\u2019s father figure Kevin (Henri Douvy), his daughter Courtney (Tallie Medel) who\u2019s having a fling with Jim (Keith Poulson), Jim\u2019s partner Lucy (Deragh Campbell), mother figure Marie (Eileen Kearney) who handles Kevin when he has an emotional (and substance abuse) relapse, and musicians Alex (Jason Giampietro) and Fred (Jason Grisell).<\/p>\n

Ann arrives after she\u2019s left her girlfriend, and her mere presence sends another former flame (Kevin’s young wife of 3 days) packing, but the group is comprised of deeply flawed people failing to maintain the communal standard and rules which supposedly ensure no one\u2019s former habits \u2013 drugs, alcohol, prostitution, sexual addiction \u2013 are supposed to return.<\/p>\n

The rules are clear: simple fashions, no drugs in the house, and members must remain \u201chealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most important, everyone must participate in group activities, especially ‘re-enactments,’ a ‘therapeutic’ recreation of the trauma that brought them to the commune. Everyone takes turns in expunging bad memories, but it’s clear the circular gatherings are used as control mechanisms that quash egos; moreover, the pain these people share can\u2019t be cured by amateur shrinks\u00a0whose rewards are\u00a0hugs and gentle pats, nor by a group that’s essentially lived within the same house for many years, venturing outside for groceries or to sell the group\u2019s lone commercial product \u2013 a piss-coloured fermented \u201ctea\u201d brewed in a bathtub and sold in mason jars to unsuspecting locals.<\/p>\n

The commune is the kind of facsimile middle class suburbanites would conjure after reading a few articles and watching PBS documentaries, adopting elements that only translate to their simple world rather than a more spiritual philosophy; and like a modern cult, the group videotapes the most combustible re-enactments\u00a0as part of some clinical study which\u00a0outside of the commune bears no scientific worth beyond cataloguing their own disintegration. The unprotected, crudely markered tapes are stored carelessly in a wardrobe, and one expects the group to ultimately implode and engage in a terrible act of mayhem… but that doesn\u2019t really happen, because Stinking Heaven<\/strong> wasn\u2019t anchored to an actual shooting script.<\/p>\n

As Campbell recalled in a Q&A at the March 14, 2016, screening at the Royal Cinema<\/a> (part of MDFF\u2019s monthly indie film series<\/a>), the actors created their own characters, some opting to send on-camera video diaries to inspire both themselves and director Nathan Silver, and when shooting began the cast was given two rules: portray their characters as sober and being supportive of each other; and have no script material to reference, relying on whatever Silver had slotted for the day\u2019s filming.<\/p>\n

Shot mostly in chronological order in a house where the cast & crew lived for a month, Stinking Heaven<\/strong> might seem more than a bit loose \u2013 a day\u2019s scenes may have stemmed from new ideas inspired by a prior day\u2019s filming, and there are a few continuity issues (Poulson’s beard growth\u00a0is sometimes highly\u00a0inconsistent) \u2013 but it works as a fragmented, sometimes elliptical drama where the overwrought tragedy at the end is wholly in tune with the self-absorbed characters, the mind games played when a someone\u2019s died, and a\u00a0passive-aggressive power struggle that follows.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the lone flaw is that amid the layered dialogue mixes in the living and dining room discussions, it\u2019s hard to grasp the names of the characters; they\u2019re not similar, but there\u2019s little opportunity to recall names and pin them on specific characters in the first half.<\/p>\n

Improvised dialogue and strong performances are the film\u2019s more overtly unique aspects, but Stinking Heaven<\/strong>\u2019s also novel for being shot\u00a0with a vintage\u00a0Ikegami HL-79E<\/a> 3-tube ENG video camera which gives the film a remarkable look.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an aesthetic that\u2019s as important to the 1990 period setting and drama as was Andrew Bujalski\u2019s use of\u00a0older B&W industrial cameras to recreate the late seventies for his\u00a0Computer Chess<\/strong> (2013), \u00a0but cinematographer Adam Ginsberg worked\u00a0wonders in transcending the camera\u2019s limitations by muting the inherent flaws of the gear and creating beautiful colour compositions. The lighting was mostly practical but effective in creating a sweaty movie where the characters themselves rarely bathe or shave (because the bathtub\u2019s fermenting ‘tea’), and when they do bathe, it’s a communal exterior\u00a0drenching that precedes a trip to sell their mason jars.<\/p>\n

When there\u2019s no hot spots in the footage (it’s a problem in bright exteriors and filming brightly lit surfaces), the colours are quite vibrant, and while some viewers may react hard to the film\u2019s look, the first scenes in the house guarantee all eyes are on the characters due to the engaging lead actors. Stephen Gurewitz\u2019 editing reduced the material to its most essential and compelling segments, and Stinking Heaven<\/strong> really doesn\u2019t need to run any longer than 70 mins.<\/p>\n

Even when digitally projected, Ginsberg\u2019s translation of the footage from standard def to HD is very clean, and many of the inherent flaws of interlaced SD footage have been smoothened out. In terms of a feature film shot using vintage tube cameras, Silver and Ginsberg\u2019s approach could be branded a game-changer by proving how well a classic look can be imported and retained in a digital\u00a0release instead of a faux tube look created with digital filters and plugins. Bridging the film’s period look with its final digital rendering is Paul Grimstad’s appropriately sparse score, which contains contemporary and analogue synth elements that creep in and give the film a bit of momentum when the dialogue exchanges run for extended periods.<\/p>\n

Campbell\u2019s recollection of the month-long shoot is amusing in that the house wasn\u2019t the most ideal environment \u2013 lying on the carpet left \u201ca slime that would stick to actors\u201d \u2013 but as she stated with humour, \u201cit wasn\u2019t super-fun in the thick of it, but I quite like [the film].\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathan Silver\u2019s Stinking Heaven<\/strong> is available as a digital rental \/ purchase download from Vimeo<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>, and as a limited VHS release<\/a>, but those really keen to see how well Ginsberg\u2019s cinematography retained the camera\u2019s tube look should stick with the digital version.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2016 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stinking Heaven\u2019s premise involves a suburban commune in 1990 New Jersey that\u2019s upset by the arrival of a newcomer and the gradual disintegration of the order that\u2019s kept the group together, but that\u2019s really a flexible premise, because as it becomes rapidly clear, there\u2019s much pre-existing discontent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[4299,4296,4297,4298,4295,4300],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3s5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13273"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13289,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13273\/revisions\/13289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}