Film lineup concludes with top honors going to ‘As It Is in Heaven’
The Indie Grits Film Festival ended on Sunday with the winning movies playing at the Nickelodeon Theater. Here are some of the winners and other feature films that played during the festival.
As It Is in Heaven- Top Grit
The most accomplished and polished of these four features, “As It Is in Heaven” is a serious look into faith, both in religion and fellow man. A small religious sect are led by an older man who goes by the name of Edward (John Lina) who says God has told him the end days are near. He injures himself in a fall and before he ultimately dies, he tells David (Chris Nelson), a man who joined the group a year ago, that he should lead the group through the final days. Edward does not give the responsibility to his son Eamon (Luke Beavers) who has been in the sect his whole life. David says that God wants the group to fast until the final days. Some of the members, especially Eamon, become suspicious of his actions.
No matter if one is an atheist or a fundamentalist Christian, everyone should agree these characters are all delusional people in a cult who need help. Although their behavior is baffling, the director Joshua Overbay makes their situation totally convincing. There is an eerie, quiet dread that hangs over the film that stays with the viewer. It does not provide simple answers or solutions, and therefore becomes illusive but thought-provoking. The film is very much like the work of Jeff Nichols (“Take Shelter,” “Mud”).
Skanks- People’s Grit
It’s like a gay “Waiting for Guffman” with heart. Director David McMahon follows Billy Ray Brewton, a community theater director in the conservative, deeply religious city of Birmingham, Ala,, as he puts on a production of his own raunchy drag musical “Shanks in a One Horse Town.”
One of the lead actors in the musical and interviewees in the documentary, Chuck Duck, a snappy drag queen and comic actor, steals the show. On the surface, the film captures the joy of theater and the community it builds, especially for LGBTQ folks, but at its heart, it also showcases the homophobia and intolerance inherent in the Bible Belt. McMahon evenhandedly lets a host of people speak their mind to allow a diversity of views to be expressed. What Chuck’s parents say about him and his “lifestyle” is painful and conflicted, but it is honest and revealing. It is “let’s put on a show” fun with a powerful message about members of society often frowned upon in many sections of the South.
Limo Ride
Gideon C. Kennedy and Marcus Rosentrater directed this unusual documentary based on a bizarre story that happened over ten years ago. Ten hard-drinking people, nine men and one woman, hire a limousine for New Year’s Eve and after hours of partying, indulging in spirits and fighting, they upset the limo driver and wind up stranded on a dirt road in the middle of the cold, dark night. What a great way to start the New Year. The actual victims narrate the documentary (except for the female, who did not wish be involved in the film in any way) while actors reenact the events. It is like the “Drunk History” videos on Funny or Die, and, well, it is drunk history. The story is so outrageous and continually unbelievable that it remains perversely watchable. It is as if Errol Morris directed the Jackass guys in “The Hangover Goes South.”
Lighter
Shot in Greenville and the surrounding upstate, “Lighter” is a dark narrative comedy about Roman Clower, a redneck stand-up comedian (Matt Hagan) much like Larry the Cable Guy who torches his career after falling into depression and hating his current career path. After an outburst at one of his shows, he tries to kill himself only to be interrupted by his manager. He wants to pursue serious acting, and when his manager does not see that happening, Roman fires him, packs up and flies home to South Carolina. There he joins a local production of “Hamlet” although he lacks the talent and physicality the role demands. The director of the show shamelessly casts him solely because he knows his name will draw an audience. In his hometown for the first time since his father’s funeral, Roman must confront childhood friends, a former lover and his mother.
While fitfully amusing, the film could use some tightening. The key to comedy is timing, and too often scenes or lines stay for a beat too long. Hagan captures the deadbeat attitude of a selfish character in depression, but his outburst on stage is pitched at the same level. He is obviously at a low place, but the performance can be too one-note at times.