LA Film Festival Review: Four

One of the things that I learned about the LA Film Festival in particular is that themes and images tend to overlap from film to film in almost a kismet kind-of-way.  Last year, I wrote it off as a rudimentary effect of teaching the creative process and this year I'm more inclined to view it as more serendipitous.  And, though I’m seeing a comparatively less number of movies than 2011, there are still enough coincidences to make one smile.  For instance, I had just finished seeing A Night Too Young (Příliš mladá nots), when I jumped over to the next theatre to see Joshua Sanchez’ Four, an adaption of Christopher Shinn’s play, with the financial help of Neil LaBute.  At first, going from watching grainy 16mm film stock to digital was jarring.  The crisp imagery was just too abrasive and glaring (even though the majority of the film takes place at night) after soaking in the timeless quality of Night.  I soon recognized the appropriate messy realness of the digital stock and had to chuckle at how both films take place for roughly twenty-four hours over a major holiday (from New Year’s Eve in the Czech Republic we go to Four’s American Independence Day), complete with pensive ruminations over the fleeting nature of fireworks in tandem with coming-of-age stories.  Also, each has some controversial sexual imagery involving a kid and adult.  So far geographically, yet so much in common.

Wendell Pierce

At any rate, the title also represents the number of main characters.  On one hand, we have daughter Abigayle (Aja Naomi King) trying to decide if she is going to have sex with her new boyfriend Dexter (EJ Bonilla), while her father Joe (Wendell Pierce) has lied to her about his plans to meet his online teenage friend June (Emory Cohen).  Her boyfriend is a bit of poseur, but has a big heart to go with his large libido.  She uses him to sort through the stress and pressure she feels regarding her confusing home life, as well as forget about the pain they bring, while her hetero-married father takes a young man out on a date while eventually planning to get to know him in the biblical sense.  Abigayle carefully measures her steps towards what is made readily available to her, while the father contends with a partner he is constantly checking in with to see where the evening will end up.  Whatever sex that does take place isn’t magical for most, but an empty primal need to lose oneself, face who they are, or, in one person’s case, actually enjoy the body they’ve been given.  The night this film takes place details what happens on their respective dates.  

Future Superstar Aja Naomi King

Some of the less well-adjusted teenagers in Four are confused and have taken it upon themselves to carry the burden of the world.  Joe observes, when he was young, his generation learned to keep, “a lock inside – we didn’t expect too much.”  Abigayle and June are so judgmental of what satisfies/interests them sexually, that there is no joy, only the desire for someone else to hold up a mirror to them, so they can see who the really are.  A great deal of the movie takes place while driving. 

Super hot EJ Bonilla

Sweat dripping from Joe’s scalp eventually segues to tears in his eyes.  He’s a gay man (or bisexual, whatever) who has been having sex with other men for most of his adult life since the 1980s, but chose not to fully embrace his being, but rather enter the socially normative hetero-marital contract.  While he isn’t technically breaking Massachusetts’ age of consent law (though he cheekily alludes to the illegal nature of cheating on his spouse), he didn't strike me as a card-carrying NAMBLA member grooming his prey.  Or maybe I’m not puritanical enough to judge him.  At the very least, he bucks the stereotype of a pedophile.  Though he strives to be a confidant of the kid, as well as a cheerleader, and his needs are ultimately lascivious (for the more cynical), Joe gives June the option of exiting at any given moment.  During his many different angles at trying to get to what June is about, Joe, taking note of his antisocial body language, tells him to choose to love things in life and “Say it with force.”  As well, he loftily shares with June that HIV may have been God’s way of teaching gay men to think about the sex they’re having, rather than just have it.  Fourenters a conversation that deserves to be out in the open, rather than swept under the rug, as there are no crimes in talking about things.  Are June and Joe’s need for each other a symptom of where our society is at present with homosexuality in some areas of the country?  Every gay has their own needs and method of coming out, even if it’s a choice made at June's age (somewhere between 16 and 18).  

Christine Giorgio, EJ Bonilla, Aja Naomi King, Joshua Sanchez

The tight writing and efficient direction showcase a superb cast.  Pierce (and his big old laugh) and Cohen bring to a life a relationship not seen before on film.  As Dexter, Bonilla in his cornrows wishing he was black shows growth both physically and in his acting since his LA Film Festival Mamitas last year.  The standout among these exceptional actors is King, who is whip-smart and sure to have quite a career for herself, if Hollywood gets out of her way and gives at least one black woman of her generation the opportunity to shine in ways we sadly haven't really seen yet (i.e. sexy, young, beautiful black woman taking on lead role after lead role).  Caveman’s “My Room” starts and ends the story that will surely get people talking if enough go to see it.  At the screening this reviewer attended, host Jen Wilson introduced director Sanchez, who also came up after the credits rolled along with producer Christine Giorgio and cast members Bonilla and Asia to endeavor a Q & A.