Impressions of Day Zero
May. 7th, 2007 01:47 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
merylmarie.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
elijah_findsLast night was the last scheduled showing of Day Zero at the Tribeca Film Festival, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oselle and I went to see it, nostalgic for our old Lucy and Ethel days of Elijah fandom. It was in a theater on Third Avenue at 11th, not all that far from the area Elijah frequents when he's in NYC, so that lent a little tingle of interest. We had a nice dinner at a nearby French restaurant and arrived just in time to get our pick of seats before everyone else glommed in. The director, Bryan Gunnar Cole, was there for a Q&A and sat just in front of us. A number of crew members were there, too, but there was no sign of Elijah or any other featured actors.
SPOILERS FOLLOW...
I find it hard to be objective when I'm watching Elijah in a movie, since I'm so used to studying his looks and bringing in all the associations I have from his other films and interviews, but I think he did very well with the character of Aaron. He was a young man very much in need of emotional support who was afraid to really ask for it, and he did the best he could to counsel himself in the face of the terrible prospect of forced military enlistment. With 30 days to deal with it, he made a brave little list of things to do before being sucked into Army life. He was adorably funny looking at his naked torso and grabbing at his little tummy, wailing "I am so fucked. I'm fat and skinny at the same time!" Ally Sheedy played his horror of a therapist, doing her nails or a crossword puzzle while he told her his troubles. His two friends from high school who also got draft notices, played by Chris Klein and Jon Bernthal, gave him what support they could while coping with their own problems, but they didn't grasp the depth of his need. He quietly disintegrated, feeling scared and certain of failure, and it was heartbreaking to hear him talk to his sister on the phone near the end of the movie and realize that he was completely estranged from his family, too.
This is a better movie than Hooligans, more focussed and less contrived. Chris Klein shows abilities here I didn't think he had, and I liked Jon Bernthal, too. The women gave restrained emotional performances that added to the whole nicely. One problem I had with the script was that I didn't pick up on the one small mention of their having met in high school, so that I spent most of the movie wondering how these three very different guys had become friends, because they didn't seem to fit together at all. There were some extraneous characters, and the ending seemed unnecessarily up in the air, but the director explained later that that was a deliberate artistic choice. I felt the details of their lives and the timeline needed filled out more, but when the director explained how tight the shooting schedule was (24 days, and something like 170 scenes), I realized he did well with it under the circumstances.
One funny story about Elijah: someone asked the director what scene was the hardest to film, and he said the night shoot of when Aaron goes to a prostitute and gets roughed up by her pimp on the street. It was raining steadily the whole time. Some hours into it, Elijah told him he'd shot scenes on top of mountains in the snow with bare feet, and this was worse! :D
Someone asked about casting, and Cole said that aside from Jon Bernthal almost everyone came from Elijah's agency, William Morris. Asked about whether they'd got a distributor, he said that was a nice dream, so not yet.
Essential information for fangurls: Nice bare torso shots; amazing sequence when his head is shaved and those lovely locks fall softly down; lovely profiles; wife beater T-shirt; a working out scene with a determined, haunted face; a scene where he bashes his laptop to pieces. Many, many great screencaps to be harvested.
oselle and I went to see it, nostalgic for our old Lucy and Ethel days of Elijah fandom. It was in a theater on Third Avenue at 11th, not all that far from the area Elijah frequents when he's in NYC, so that lent a little tingle of interest. We had a nice dinner at a nearby French restaurant and arrived just in time to get our pick of seats before everyone else glommed in. The director, Bryan Gunnar Cole, was there for a Q&A and sat just in front of us. A number of crew members were there, too, but there was no sign of Elijah or any other featured actors. SPOILERS FOLLOW...
I find it hard to be objective when I'm watching Elijah in a movie, since I'm so used to studying his looks and bringing in all the associations I have from his other films and interviews, but I think he did very well with the character of Aaron. He was a young man very much in need of emotional support who was afraid to really ask for it, and he did the best he could to counsel himself in the face of the terrible prospect of forced military enlistment. With 30 days to deal with it, he made a brave little list of things to do before being sucked into Army life. He was adorably funny looking at his naked torso and grabbing at his little tummy, wailing "I am so fucked. I'm fat and skinny at the same time!" Ally Sheedy played his horror of a therapist, doing her nails or a crossword puzzle while he told her his troubles. His two friends from high school who also got draft notices, played by Chris Klein and Jon Bernthal, gave him what support they could while coping with their own problems, but they didn't grasp the depth of his need. He quietly disintegrated, feeling scared and certain of failure, and it was heartbreaking to hear him talk to his sister on the phone near the end of the movie and realize that he was completely estranged from his family, too.
This is a better movie than Hooligans, more focussed and less contrived. Chris Klein shows abilities here I didn't think he had, and I liked Jon Bernthal, too. The women gave restrained emotional performances that added to the whole nicely. One problem I had with the script was that I didn't pick up on the one small mention of their having met in high school, so that I spent most of the movie wondering how these three very different guys had become friends, because they didn't seem to fit together at all. There were some extraneous characters, and the ending seemed unnecessarily up in the air, but the director explained later that that was a deliberate artistic choice. I felt the details of their lives and the timeline needed filled out more, but when the director explained how tight the shooting schedule was (24 days, and something like 170 scenes), I realized he did well with it under the circumstances.
One funny story about Elijah: someone asked the director what scene was the hardest to film, and he said the night shoot of when Aaron goes to a prostitute and gets roughed up by her pimp on the street. It was raining steadily the whole time. Some hours into it, Elijah told him he'd shot scenes on top of mountains in the snow with bare feet, and this was worse! :D
Someone asked about casting, and Cole said that aside from Jon Bernthal almost everyone came from Elijah's agency, William Morris. Asked about whether they'd got a distributor, he said that was a nice dream, so not yet.
Essential information for fangurls: Nice bare torso shots; amazing sequence when his head is shaved and those lovely locks fall softly down; lovely profiles; wife beater T-shirt; a working out scene with a determined, haunted face; a scene where he bashes his laptop to pieces. Many, many great screencaps to be harvested.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 05:55 am (UTC)You should definitely modify your entry to add a spoiler warning. Many people at LJ are trying very hard to avoid spoilers.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 06:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 06:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 06:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 11:03 am (UTC)I loved the bit about Elijah saying it was worse than filming snow scenes in bare feet!!
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. I hope Tribeca helps the film gets some distribution!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 03:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 11:17 am (UTC)Great review thank you!:D
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 03:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 11:43 am (UTC)loved the.. 'worse than cold mountain tops'.. quote btw..!! It must have been bad..*aw bless*.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 04:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 05:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 06:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 06:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 03:37 pm (UTC)My knowledge of Elwood's facial features and expressions is now so deeply ingrained into my brain that I can't be objective about his roles or acting anymore, either. I know of what you speak.
Dammit, though, I'm tired of his films not getting distributors! What is WRONG with these people? Are we to be doomed to viewing his movies via downloads or at film festivals or vicariously through the lucky few who get to see them? At this point, maybe he should sign up to play Tobey Maguire in Spiderman 4 or something, as has been suggested somewhere!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 04:11 pm (UTC)Oselle is her smart, funny, ranty self, and it was great to see her again. Lucy and Ethel will never really die. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 04:21 pm (UTC)"I only want to take roles where I really believe in. And if that means that I’m stuck with small, independent films that nobody’s interested in for the rest of my life, than I can live with that."
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 04:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 05:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 04:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 05:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 05:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-08 12:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-08 03:05 am (UTC)I went over to your journal and read your account of the premiere and your summary and left a comment. What an amazing memory you have! Thanks for taking the time to put it all down for the rest of us. :))
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-08 10:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-08 06:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-08 07:05 pm (UTC)