Vanessa McMahon

That Side of A Shadow: A Review

So, I ran into these filmmakers at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and told them that when I'm not writing films I do the occasional odd journalism writing for filmfestivals.com and fest21.com. It turns out they love our website because we had done an interview with one of their lead actors, Jonas Fisch, a few months back. Hmm, that name sounded familiar. Wait... hold up, that was me! I wrote the interview with Jonas Fish while I was in Germany and Jonas was in California and now there I was in California randomly meeting the makers of Jonas' latest film, That Side of a Shadow (2010), which held its world premier at this year's Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Writer/Producer/Director Ricky Fosheim and Writer/producer/Actor Dillon Tucker and I spoke at length about their new film which they are deservedly proud of. It starts out with a gorgeously shot dream sequence to the song ‘Gloomy Sunday' sung by Billy Holiday. I mean, this dream sequence is epic with rich colors and archetypes playing across the screen. You're so entranced by the first few minutes that you feel like you've hit the jackpot of American Indie cinema and you almost pray for the dream to never end. But then our main character, Jimmy Strange (played by Jeffrey A. Baker), wakes up from his dream and we enter shoddy reality inside a messy LA apartment with a screaming girlfriend, Sara Harrison (played by Kristin Erickson). The couple love, fight, love and then fight again, and they say so much when they fight you wonder what happened to good old cinematic subtext. You just wish that they would say less and leave something to the imagination for the viewer. At least, that was my thinking in Act One. But...I wondered...

...Is there a reason for all this screaming? Is there a reason for all this in your face superfluity? So, I stuck with it, as one should always do when watching something you know has instinctive talent but you just can't quite put your finger on it. And then something hit me. This film isn't about the dream world of narrative storytelling. This film is about real gritty Americana. It's not about subtext or crafty filmmaking; rather, it's about gratuitous in your face loud blaring exaggerating American culture. So, how else can it get its point across other than screaming and getting up in your face and saying what you mean when you mean to say it? Yes, I am American but I am the first to admit how in your face we can be as a culture. Suddenly, I realized I had hit on something while watching this film.

It starts with Jimmy's dream. He wakes up to callous reality- a screaming girlfriend, a disappointing trouble making friend Isaac Nelson (played expertly by Dillon Tucker) who gets Jimmy into a lot of trouble with his drug taking and involvement with local gangsters. Jimmy and Isaac go on the run from gangsters trying to find a way to get the money back that Isaac owes them. And then it's time to go on the run. This isn't a story we haven't seen before. What is original is its message, or at least what I took from it. At the end of the film, after all the push and shove, Jimmy and Sara go to an art museum and ponder and abstract painting (recalling the dream world once again- archetypes) and Jimmy sees a connection between a blooming flower and one not yet bloomed, saying ‘the bloomed flower is inviting the un-bloomed one to dance'. And then the story gradually ends somewhere after this note. So, we start with a dream, live in harsh gratuitous reality and then we end with a synthesis, somewhere between dream and reality. Beautiful!

The greatest synthesis for me in this film is the way in which it is filmed. Here we have real Cinema Americana- sex, violence, screaming, drugs and death- and yet it is filmed so beautifully. I cannot say how many independent films I see where the production quality itself leaves much to be desired and can thus ruin even the greatest acting and storytelling, but this film puts many indies to shame with its shear expert filmmaking quality. Huge props to Ricky Fosheim on his expert directing skills. It is clear that this young man is headed for greatness. His technique is stunning even when the matter of the story is banal and just plain ugly. Somehow Ricky makes it striking from start to end. Of course to balance Ricky's lyrical direction and cinematographer Kevin Stewart's stunning photographic direction, Dillon Tucker's nastiness and brilliant seediness brings balance to the story and film on all fronts. You gotta' love this film team's methods keeping it all real between dream and reality, lyrical filmmaking versus ugly seedy characters and deep symbolism in the midst of surplus dialogue. A job well, very well done guys. Please, please, give us more! ;-)

written by, Vanessa McMahon on Feb 08, 2011

For more reviews on this refreshing slice of Indie Americana, read here:

http://www.independent.com/news/2011/jan/29/em-side-shadowem/

trailer here: http://vimeo.com/10890410