Nathan Silver's Stinking Heaven is a jet black comedy centered around a commune for sober living that houses a host of recovering drug addicts. What I have always appreciated about Nathan Silver's work is it shatters conventional genre classifications, and Stinking Heaven is no exception, being a film of raw emotional power and dark comedy. Shot in 4:3, with a muted, home video type aesthetic, Stinking Heaven is a raw journey into the emotional instability and diminishing structure of this commune of individuals, each of which is struggling with their own singular issues. Stinking Heaven feels like a film itself that lacks structure at first but what is so remarkable is how the film seemlessly transitions through the various characters' emotional troubles, doing so in a way that shouldn't work but it certainly does. Silver's direction is raw but pointed, as he shows a remarkable ability to always know the precise moment in a scene to focus on his various character's emotions. His camera can be roaming or stagnant, but it rarely ever misses the opportunity to capture human truths in even small moments. One scene that stood out was a fight between two of the characters, as Silver plays with the composition, using what I can only describe as a kaleidoscope type effect, for lack of a better word, creating multiple versions of these two characters in a heated argument. Its hard to describe, clearly, but the technique captures these two characters' emotional stability in a visual way. Besides being full of comedy that quite frankly makes you feel bad for laughing at sometimes, Stinking Heaven seems to have something to say about the fine line between structure and control. Jim, the character who runs the commune, needs to be in control of the people in the commune and when he loses said control is when everything crumbles. These characters need structure and for Jim, a character who seeks control, the combination becomes volatile. Nathan Silver's Stinking Heaven can be enjoyed in multiple ways, either as a black comedy or searing drama, making it another example of how important of a filmmaker he is in the independent arena, one who always seems to present a singular vision.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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