Dan Perlman & Kevin Iso's FLATBUSH MISDEMEANORS is a slow building smile producing shortfilm. It is the first of what we can only hope will be a long running series tat will lead to bigger and better things for the Perlman and Iso.
The plot of the film has Iso making a food delivery to some drug dealers and it going terribly wrong. With his life on the line he as to come up with some cash before the kill him. Meanwhile his buddy Perlman has his teaching career go sideways when an effort to bond with the students result in record low scores.
Dropping us into the action the film takes a couple of minutes to fully click. Perlman and Iso are not giving us your typical comedy characters, they are something a little more both comedically and realistically. These are not your typical leads with perfectly witty retorts at every turn but real guys who are fumbling their way through life. The mistakes they make and problems they face are situations that aren't that far from the real world (Why don't you call me daddy?)
Filmed in a "you are there" style I was kind of worried at the start that this was going feel much tto cluttered to be real. The film is shot hand held in small apartments and in many films filmmakers don't know how to handle it making everything feel much too claustrophobic. Instead once the film moved out of the first apartment and into the hallway to reveal what becomes a returning gag, I realized that Perlman and Iso are very aware of the spaces they are working in and as a result they turn closeness into realness.
I love that the laughter builds from start to finish. There is a lovely pacing to the madness whic gives us bigger laughs as the film progresses since instead of just giving us a series of gags we are given characters we can care for with the result the need for straight on jokes falls away and we get deeper laughs based on character.
I was absolutely delighted by this film with the result that the instant I finished screening it I emailed Dan Perlman to ask how many more of these gems will be coming (a second installment is finished and a third is on the way with more dependent upon the reaction).
Very recommended.
FLATBUSH MISDEMEANORS written & directed by Dan Perlman & Kevin Iso will be showing at Slamdance on Wed, Jan 24th, 3:15 PM @ Gallery @ Treasure Mountain Inn (255 Main Street, Park City, UT 84060)
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