More Directors, More Films: "No Sleep Till" & "Sad Jokes"

Two last movie reviews to close out New Directors/New Films.

Wrapping up my coverage of New Directors/New Films with two films that I really dug. The festival may be ending, but these movies will hopefully resurface sooner rather than later. No Sleep Till and Sad Jokes are quite different in form, but both feature uncertain characters searching for a new direction in their lives.

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No Sleep Till

Screens April 9 & 11. Release plans from Factory 25 to be announced.

Courtesy Factory 25.

Before I watched No Sleep Till, I was flummoxed by its title. My brain would always autocomplete it with “Brooklyn!!!” even though, according to the synopsis, the film took place in Florida. No sleep till… Jacksonville? Now that I’ve seen the movie, the iconic song that pops in my head is no longer from the Beastie Boys. Towards the end, we catch a glimpse of a late night house party, revellers jumping up and down while outside, palm trees are whipped by the winds of an approaching hurricane. It’s Britney that I hear: keep on dancing till the world ends.

The effects of the climate crisis have been acutely felt in Florida, where hurricane seasons have increased in length and intensity. At the start of this film, one of those storms is days away from hitting the shores of Atlantic Beach, a coastal town near Jacksonville. There’s a mandatory evacuation order, and although most of the tourists and residents have already left, a few are in no hurry to leave fast. Alexandra Simpson’s slice of neo-Americana sits at the borders of atmospheric poetry and conventional narrative, much like the other films produced by Omnes Films (recent titles include Eephus and Christmas Eve at Miller’s Point). While this drifting, ambivalent style will put off some viewers, the feelings of liminal yearning it generates might as well be hypersonic missiles to my heart.

The experience of No Sleep Till is a lot like people watching: we float back and forth between the four main characters as they go about their days and nights. At first, it feels like we’re kept too far at arm’s length, but as narrative arcs emerge, we’re brought a little bit closer. There’s Will (Jordan Coley), a food delivery guy by day, very small-time standup comic by night. No one is paying attention to his set — the “audience” is busy playing pool — until he’s violently heckled. That intervention turns out to be a bit that Will runs with Mike (Xavier Brown-Sanders), a close friend who doesn’t match his ambitions to blow this town. A stormchaser (Taylor Benton) hopes to get the shot of a lifetime, and in the meantime he livestreams the darkening clouds and sleeps in his truck. And at the local swimming pool we find June (Brynne Hofbauer), perhaps seventeen, going under the water’s surface. After her morning swim, she bikes to her job at a souvenir shop, where the day’s revenue amounts to a whopping $16, and then heads to the skate park to hang out with her crush. None of these people ever meet, but they all see this hurricane as an opportunity to spur some kind of change in their stagnant lives.

Simpson, who wrote, directed, produced, and edited her feature film debut, softens her firmly observational approach with dreamy ambience. It suits the naturalistic performances from this cast, all of whom are first-time actors. Benton, a real-life stormchaser, was discovered on Instagram, and the director first met Hofbauer at the diner where she works as a waitress. It’s easy to lose oneself within this languorous vibe piece, thanks to its soundtrack — reverb-heavy guitars and glowing synth pads — and the gorgeously captured Florida coast. But there is something heavy at the film’s center. It’s no coincidence that all the principal characters are young. They are the most impacted by this warming planet and the crumbling empire that is America, contending with the consequences of our forebears’ desire to play God with the natural world. Through their nonchalant anticipation of this hurricane, and the broader climate anxieties it represents, we sense their shared desire for the winds and the waves to wash everything away. Maybe there will be a fresh start, maybe there will be nothing left. But if the hurricane changes its path, and the realization of our fears and hopes are deferred, what then? Perhaps sleep.

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Sad Jokes

Screens April 11 & 12. Currently seeking distribution.

Courtesy of Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art.

Near the start of this endearing story of a life stuck in intermission, forty-year-old filmmaker Joseph (Fabian Stumm, who also wrote and directed) pitches an idea to his producer. His previous movie was a tearjerking lesbian romance, and now he wants to shift to comedy. Haltingly describing the desired tone as somewhere between naturalism and absurdism — the word he’s looking for is dramedy — Joseph doesn’t sound entirely convinced of his own idea.

To be fair, he has a lot going on at the moment. His best friend Sonya (Haley Louise Jones), with whom he co-parents their young son, checks into a mental health clinic amidst a struggle with depression. He breaks his finger after an unfortunate but hilariously drawn out mishap involving a vending machine and a clueless stranger. And in what is perhaps the saddest and most relatable of jokes, the poor fellow is still not over his ex-boyfriend, three years after the breakup.

We witness Joseph juggling his various responsibilities and hangups through a series of exquisitely composed vignettes, which are shot with diffusive light of a pleasantly cloudy day and leavened with classical piano pieces from the likes of Mozart and Strauss. Stumm’s exaggerated autofiction — that’s his real, co-parented son playing Joseph’s offspring — is the kind of movie that his filmic avatar wants to make: tender, humanist, sometimes sad, sometimes funny.

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In case you missed it: my previous capsule reviews of other ND/NF titles Familiar Touch, Kyuka Before Summer’s End, The Height of the Coconut Trees, CycleMahesh, and Holy Electricity…

…and some words on the short films programmed at the festival!