Saturday November 14, 2009
Harmony and Me (Cucalorus)
Robert Byington's endearing twentysomething crisis movie blends familiar elements to original and satisfying effect. A thematic relation to Gregory's Girl, Swingers and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, it uses a bargain basement mumblecore aesthetic, but sidesteps the self-indulgence to which that mini-genre is prone thanks to a sustained sharp wit. Sad-faced Justin Rice is our afflicted protagonist, Harmony, who's a prototype nightmare dumpee - the sort of heartbroken friend you take out for consolatory drinks two or three times before resorting any excuse to avoid hearing, yet again, the play-by-play rehash of just what went wrong. In the wake of his separation from his perky dreamgirl Jessica (Kristen Tucker), Harmony's friends and family are as unsympathetic as only true intimates can be. His appalling brothers mock his anguished state, and his buddies counsel stoicism on the basis that Jessica was 'dull' and 'only an eight' (as opposed to the elusive 'ten'). The there's Harmony's boss, who self-confessedly loses interest in women once they reach legal age; and his mother, an obsessive chainsmoker whose lungs, according to her doctor, 'should be declared a national disaster area'... Harmony and Me is primarily played for dark laughs, but inside Rice's guarded, edgy little performance there's a sincere portrayal of someone absolutely trapped in self-consciousness and self-pity. His social missteps and emotional misjudgements are harrowingly, hilariously close to the bone. Witness Harmony drifting inexorably into an instantly regrettable one-night-stand with his neighbour, Natasha (Alison Latta), a bolshy blonde embodiment of every soulsucking oversharer you've ever met; or jumping up as if electrocuted when his male pal tries to embrace him. ('You're a mess,' notes said pal, sadly. 'Rigid. Tense, too.')
Low-budget comedies are often satisfied with basking in their limited resources, ripping off their influences and chucking forth the odd off- colour gag; but Harmony and Me is a far more distinctive and intelligent affair, which distinguishes itself by its fine comic timing and its agile deployment of language. A tiny-budget, less people-pleasing version of those love-the-loser comedies crafted around comics of the moment Seth Rogen, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, this film is bold enough not to flinch from the ugliness of emotional turmoil; humane enough to forgive it; and ballsy enough to laugh right in its face.
Director: Robert Byington
Cinematographer: Jim Eastburn
Producer: Kristen Tucker
Format: DigiBeta
Runtime: 74 minutes
ACE Films partners with Cucalorous Film Festival to host screenings in UNCW's Lumina Theater.
Info on the festival can be found at: Cucalorus.org
Tickets will be available at Sharky's Box Office on the first floor of the Fisher Student Center, next to the entrance for Lumina Theater. Tickets may also be purchased at www.etix.com.
Lumina Theater. 10:45 a.m. Advance Tickets Recommended or carry Cucalorus Pass. Presented by the Cucalorus Film Festival
Parking: On Thursday and Friday before 5 p.m., Cucalorus guests my park at one of the 25 hooded meters on Riegel Road, utelize the Greene Track parking lot or the Visitors Parking lot. After 5 p.m. parking lot E will also be available. During the weekend, Cucalorus guests may park in any lot. Please refer to the interactive campus map: http://www.uncw.edu/ba/campus_map/index.htm
Brought to you by UNCW Presents.
