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August The First
R1 - America - Film Movement Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum (13th July 2008). |
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The Film
 Film Movement is a very cool subscription service that sends a new DVD out every month, each containing a complete indie film as well as a short film that often compliments the main feature in some way. "August the First" (2007) is the sixty-third film in the series (it is year 6, film 3). Tunde (Ian Alsup) is happy. He is celebrating his college graduation, and all of his people are gathering for a party. In addition to his girlfriend Elsa (A. Toni Sterrett), he is joined by his big brother Ade (Sean Phillips), his alcoholic cancer survivor mother Rhonda (Joy Merriweather), his aunt Janine (Monique Gramby), his foul-tempered handicapped grandmother (Gloria Sauve), his sister Simisola (Kerisse Hutchinson) and her husband Alex (Robert McKay). A special guest is also arriving for the party. Dipo (Dennis Rubin Green), the father of Tunde and his siblings, is returning to New Jersey from his home in Nigeria to attend the party. After ten years estrangement, Tunde is excited to see his father, but almost no one else is. Ade is coolly civil to his father, and Alex is willing to give his father in in law a chance, but Simisola, Rhonda, and grandma are all unashamedly hostile towards the man. He seems like a decent sort of fellow, but the implication here, based on the reaction of the three women (and Ade, to a lesser degree) is that he has done the family some horrible wrong before leaving a decade earlier. Dipo is made a bit uncomfortable by the chilly reception that his family gives him, but he maintains his composure, and treats everyone with patience and courtesy. As kind and self-deprecating as Dipo seems, he has a triple ulterior motive for coming to America, aside from attending the party. He wants to make amends with his family, he wants to talk Tunde out of visiting Nigeria (for unclear reasons), and most of all he wants to bring his new wife and little children to America. In order to accomplish this, he will need to stay in Rhonda's home - his own former home - for a while in order to save up some cash. Rhonda, of course, wants no part of that plan, whatsoever. So, Dipo has until the end of the party (also the end of the movie) to win the respect of his family. Hapless Tunde becomes a pawn in a battle of wills between Rhonda and Dipo. The film is shot more or less in real time, beginning just as the first party guests are arriving, and wrapping up later that night. Over the course of these few hours, Tunde's life is turned over as he tries to deal with the reactions that everyone is having to his father's reappearance. As Dipo, Dennis Rubin Green garners sympathy from the audience with a fine performance. It is also a refreshing change to see that the absent father is not actually the clear cut villain of the film. In fact, he seems to be among the more sympathetic of the characters, until late in the running time, when shades of grey - and even black - are squeezed out of him by his bitter relatives. The rest of the ensemble cast are adequate as well; each of them have a few nice moments, but many of them also slip up here and there. Collectively, they handle the story of Dipo's return well, and also manage to work in subplots about Rhonda's booze problem. plus a big milestone in Alex and Simisola's marriage. In the end, Dipo is cornered by circumstance, and must reluctantly behave in a firm if not ruthless way. He is forced into giving Rhonda a difficult ultimatum. He doesn't seem to have wanted things to turn out this way, but ultimately he leaves things worse than he found them. The ending is powerful and sad.
Video
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, there are severe focus problems throughout the film, and some shaky documentary-style camerawork that never stops moving for a single frame. It gave me a headache. Lens flares and inconsistent lighting further add to the visual issues. All of this is on the print, of course, and is the fault of the cinematography team, not the DVD authoring. The print is clean enough, and has been transferred to the DVD just fine. Running time is 1:21:02, divided into 12 chapters.
Audio
August the First is presented in the original English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. There are no subtitles. Sound on this one is minimal, feeling as though a lot of the location audio was used. Music is limited to a few pieces of source music during the party; there is no underscore to speak of. The stereo mix is fine.
Extras
Film Movement has released this film with extras that include a short film, a promotional short, biographies, the film's theatrical trailer and a series of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. "Tell Us the Truth Josephine" is this month's short film and runs for 15 minutes 37 seconds. The surrealist film was directed by Valerie Buhagiar and shot on super lo-fi 4:3 video tape. The picture is soft and grainy. It tells the story of a woman walking across Canada on a pair of stilts, wearing a satin dress (tailored to stilt-height). As she hikes through Canadian cities, across the wilderness, and past pop culture landmarks, she remembers her unpleasant childhood in Malta. There was all sort of unpleasantness in her past: war, incest, crazy relatives, and she appears to be attempting to make sense of it all. So is the viewer. Next is Stella Artois Presents: "Swag" promotional short which runs for 1 minute 1 second. This feature is presented as being sort of an additional short film, but it is really just a beer commercial. The Stella Artois logo has begun to appear on the back of the Film Movement DVD case too. The logo is subtle, and if corporate sponsorship is what is keeping this series going, then at least they are being tasteful about it. The disc also includes text bios for director Lanre Olabasi and cast members Ian Alsup, Dennis Rubin Green, Joy Merriweather, Sean Phillips, and Kerisse Hutchinson. There's also the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 1 minute 46 seconds, plus the following bonus trailers: - "The Violin" which runs for 2 minutes 3 seconds. - "Arranged" which runs for 4 minutes 14 seconds. - "The Bothersome Man" which runs for2 minutes 8 seconds.
Overall
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