The full film lineup of more than 140 films viewable for free from May 29. Nihilism may be the most fitting attitude in one of these instances, but it is jarring in the others - especially in a film whose interwoven structure suggests an intention to make sense of a world outsiders don’t understand. The Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF) is launching its 23rd edition, TURNING POINT, online amid the coronavirus pandemic. But the screenplay fumbles some attempts to tie things together, offering abrupt moments of violence whose motivations we feel we ought to understand but don’t. FilmBuff has acquired the drama I Am Gangster on the eve of the movie’s West Coast premiere at the Dances With Films festival, Variety has learned exclusively. The action becomes more familiarly story-driven as the film progresses, especially as we watch Rio’s first encounters with an attractive new student (musician Kelli Wakili, credited here as Kelli Strader). (An abundance of facial tattoos makes the latter job easier.) The quasi-documentary approach suits Rechenberg’s no-frills, realistic dialogue, but doesn’t keep it from growing mundane over the course of the longish pic. He and DP Lyn Moncrief frame scenes tightly with a handheld camera that tags along restlessly for much of the film, we follow behind characters so much that we can identify the backs of their heads more readily than their faces. Always searching for her ultimate paramour, this old soul swimming in new puberty will struggle between the real world and her grandiose fantasies by exploring a relatable variety of boys of yore- goths, skaters, indie film snobs, straight edge poseurs- all while trying. Instead, Rechenberg focuses on making us feel like we’re silent observers moving within their world. It’s 1991 and Pam is trying very hard to lose her virginity, but it sure doesn’t match up to her fantasies. Rio, though seemingly smarter than his peers and gentle at heart, goes along too readily with bad-news acquaintances Flores, a new prison guard getting an education from coworkers in how to abuse his authority, puts up no fight that we see when they make him part of their no-snitching brotherhood. Though we see enough of each man’s private life to understand his motivations to some extent - even if we hardly sympathize when Miguel violently pushes for increased stature in his aunt’s crime organization - none offers the kind of viewer-surrogate moral framework most films of this sort provide.
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