With a wealth of FREE movie-going options this weekend, including a “fantastic double feature of rare, bi-coastal psycho-sexual film noirs from the early 1960s” (as described by Jim Healy in this week’s Cinematheque press release) at 7:00p Saturday at 4070 Vilas Hall, the four-day Reel Love LGBT Festival (which began 7:00p Thursday and ends 6:30p Sunday) at Union South’s Marquee, and the existentially fueled road trip of Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) on 35mm at the Chazen Museum 2:00p Sunday, don’t let Nathan Silver’s Uncertain Terms (2014) become lost to uncertainty.
An official selection of several 2014 festivals including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Uncertain Terms will be presented at 7:00p Sunday at 4070 Vilas Hall as the semester’s penultimate screening in the undervalued Micro-Wave Cinema Series. Eloquent programmer Brandon Colvin will be on hand, as always, to introduce the micro-budget film and guide a Q&A session with the prolific director via Skype following the film’s 75-minute duration.
The taut modern melodrama follows Brooklynite Robbie (David Dahlbom), who migrates to the Hudson Valley to live with his aunt. As her residence doubles as a group home for pregnant teens, Robbie is the only masculine presence in sight. He begins to profoundly affect the younger women, including Nina (India Menuez), who’s especially responsive to his inadvertent intervention. Of course, the developing relationship only complicates the fragile ties between Nina and the father of her child, Chase (Casey Drogin).
Last December, New Yorker critic Richard Brody celebrated Uncertain Terms’ “intense confessional scenes” and “incisive direction [that] blends patient discernment and expressive angularity.” Brody’s review recalls Silver’s striking Stinking Heaven, which made its North American premiere just over two weeks ago in the same room as part of the 2015 Wisconsin Film Festival. Considering its thematic material and similar setup in a group home, the two films can be viewed as spiritual companions. Those who were affected by the riveting improvisational energy between the indie regulars in Stinking Heaven will certainly react to Silver’s equally sincere methods here.
- Uncertain Terms plays FREE at 7:00p on Sunday in 4070 Vilas Hall. For more information on the Micro-Wave Cinema Series that’s FREE and open to the public, please visit their Facebook community page. You can watch a teaser for Uncertain Terms below: