The Unspeakable Act

Last updated
The Unspeakable Act
The Unspeakable Act poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Dan Sallitt
Written byDan Sallitt
Produced by
  • Shari Berman
  • Ania Trzebiatowska
  • Jaime Christley
Starring
  • Tallie Medel
  • Sky Hirschkron
  • Aundrea Fares
  • Kati Schwartz
  • Caroline Luft
Cinematography Duraid Munajim
Edited byDan Sallitt
Production
company
Static Productions
Distributed by The Cinema Guild
Release dates
  • April 19, 2012 (2012-04-19)(Sarasota)
  • March 1, 2013 (2013-03-01)(United States)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Unspeakable Act is a 2012 American coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Dan Sallitt. It stars Tallie Medel as Jackie Kimball and Sky Hirschkron as Matthew Kimball, with Aundrea Fares, Kati Schwartz, and Caroline Luft in supporting roles. Framed by her voice-over narrative, the plot focuses on Jackie's unrequited romantic love for her brother Matthew.

Contents

Sallitt funded the micro-budget film using his income as a technical writer for the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation, and shot it in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn using sixteen days of accrued vacation time. [1] The film premiered at the 2012 Sarasota Film Festival, where it won the Independent Visions Award. It received a one-week theatrical run at Anthology Film Archives in New York City on March 1, 2013, and was released on DVD and digital media by Cinema Guild on August 20, 2013. It was also screened at the 2012 Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Best International Feature Film award, and in the 2013 International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film is dedicated to the late French auteur Éric Rohmer. [2]

Plot

17-year-old Brooklyn high schooler Jackie Kimball lives with her widowed mother, her 18-year-old brother Matthew, and her older sister Jeanne, while her oldest brother is abroad on a student exchange program. Jackie and Matthew have always been extremely close, but their relationship is complicated by her lifelong romantic feelings for him and his lack of reciprocity. Having until now been content with the existing state of affairs, Jackie has no choice but to deal with the disruption of her idyllic childhood world by the harbingers of adulthood.

In the spring of 2011, Matthew gets his first girlfriend, Yolanda. When Yolanda visits the Kimballs, Jackie is surprisingly sociable during the dinner, but unbeknownst to the diners, she is unable to eat without vomiting. Later that evening, Jackie confronts Matthew in the attic room that is their traditional meeting place, but he protests that he "want[s] to give [Yolanda] a chance."

Jackie is notified by a friend through a text message that Matthew unexpectedly broke up with Yolanda. Relieved, Jackie is finally able to enjoy food. Matthew had bought tickets to a concert he was planning to go to with Yolanda but, having broken up with her, invites Jackie instead. She is watchful of any sign that he might become receptive to her overtures, and they discuss her incestuous desire relaxedly, apparently not for the first time. Brother and sister spend a pleasant summer together, capped by an idyllic evening out at the concert.

Jackie's temporary reprieve from her grief wanes along with the summer itself as Matthew's departure for college approaches. Despite keeping up contact via video letters and a host of electronic media, she takes the separation hard, and her concerned mother sends her to psychotherapy. Initially secretive, on one of the visits Jackie finally opens up to her therapist Linda about her attraction to Matthew. Also, with a handsome classmate named Tristan, Jackie has her first sexual experience, of which she does not delay to notify Matthew, and he congratulates her on it.

Having no emotional attachment to Tristan, Jackie does not hesitate to alienate him when Matthew returns on vacation. During a late-night one-on-one chat in the attic room, Matthew, initially unswayed by Jackie's overtly sexual questions, snaps and accuses her of going too far. As he is again leaving for college, she is resigned to the fact that he will never reciprocate her feelings. Under Linda's influence, Jackie eventually makes the tough choice of applying to a different college than Matthew. She decides to major in psychology, an interest ignited by her own life experience.

Cast

Reception

The film received positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 88% based on reviews from 8 critics. [3] Metacritic gives it a score of 76/100 based on reviews from 5 critics. [4]

Neil Young reviewing the film for The Hollywood Reporter writes "Sensitive subject-matter is handled with tact and intelligence in this tart if talky US indie." [5] According to Dennis Schwartz, "An American indie with European sensibilities, it makes for a different sort of coming of age film – a highbrow and distinctive one that's worth checking out." [2]

Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times wrote, "More often than not the emotional bind is not shocking or taboo at its root, and indeed Mr. Sallitt’s latest, the Brooklyn-set feature The Unspeakable Act, is about the familiar more than it is about the forbidden." [6] Similarly, Drew Hunt of the Chicago Reader warns, "This may bore or frustrate some viewers: the appeal of an incest story is the prospect of seeing repressed, taboo desires erupt into explicit sex and ensuing scandal. In The Unspeakable Act, the heart of the drama is not the transgression but the curious lack thereof." [7]

Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum included the film on his list of the ten best films of 2013. [8] He later included the film in an afterword to his book Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons. [9]

Dan Sallitt, the director and screenwriter of the film himself, said in an interview with Filmmaker , "I personally don’t see Jackie’s incestuous desire as a transitory thing or part of her passage to adulthood. I think it’s just the way she is, and she will have to keep a lid on that desire in order to live comfortably, will have to cultivate other aspects of herself. By film’s end, I’m hoping that the viewer feels that we are all like Jackie, each with some quirk that makes us feel that we are the only abnormal person pretending to fit into an otherwise normal world." [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cole Porter</span> American composer and songwriter (1891–1964)

Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.

<i>Scarlet Street</i> 1945 film by Fritz Lang

Scarlet Street is a 1945 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang. The screenplay concerns two criminals who take advantage of a middle-aged painter in order to steal his artwork. The film is based on the French novel La Chienne by Georges de La Fouchardière, which had been previously dramatized on stage by André Mouëzy-Éon, and cinematically as La Chienne (1931) by director Jean Renoir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Éric Rohmer</span> French film director (1920–2010)

Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer, was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher.

<i>Staying Alive</i> (1983 film) 1983 film by Sylvester Stallone

Staying Alive is a 1983 American dance musical film and the sequel to Saturday Night Fever (1977). Directed by Sylvester Stallone, who also co-produced and co-wrote the film with original Fever producer and writer, Robert Stigwood and Norman Wexler respectively, the film stars John Travolta, reprising his role as Tony Manero, with Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Joyce Hyser, Julie Bovasso, and dancers Viktor Manoel and Kevyn Morrow.

<i>Screaming Mimi</i> (film) 1958 film by Gerd Oswald

Screaming Mimi is a 1958 American film noir directed by Gerd Oswald and starring Anita Ekberg, Philip Carey and Gypsy Rose Lee. The story originated as a 1949 novel of the same name by Fredric Brown.

<i>Vampyros Lesbos</i> 1971 film

Vampyros Lesbos is a 1971 West German-Spanish erotic horror film directed and co-written by Jesús Franco. The film stars Ewa Strömberg as Linda Westinghouse, an American who works in a Turkish legal firm. Westinghouse has a series of erotic dreams that involve a mysterious vampire woman who seduces her before feeding on her blood. When she travels to an island to settle an inheritance, Linda recognizes a woman as the vampire from her dreams.

<i>My Night at Mauds</i> 1969 French film

My Night at Maud's, also known as My Night with Maud (UK), is a 1969 French New Wave drama film by Éric Rohmer. It is the third film in his series of Six Moral Tales.

<i>Stardust</i> (2007 film) Romantic fantasy film by Matthew Vaughn

Stardust is a 2007 romantic fantasy adventure film directed by Matthew Vaughn and co-written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman. Based on Neil Gaiman's 1999 novel of the same name, it features an ensemble cast led by Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais, Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Peter O'Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Robert De Niro, with narration by Ian McKellen.

"Amour Fou" is the 38th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the 12th of the show's third season. Its teleplay was written by Frank Renzulli from a story idea by series creator, David Chase. It was directed by Tim Van Patten and originally aired on May 13, 2001.

<i>While the Children Sleep</i> American TV series or program

While the Children Sleep is a 2007 American made-for-television horror film directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Gail O'Grady, William R. Moses, Mariana Klaveno, Tristan Lake Leabu, Madison Davenport, and Stacy Haiduk. Released on the Lifetime Movie Network, its plot concerns a couple who hires a live-in nanny who inserts herself increasingly into the family routine. Then friends of the family begin to have mysterious accidents, as the nanny conspires to replace the mother through murder.

<i>Gossip Girl</i> (season 1) Season of television series

The first season of the American teen drama television series Gossip Girl premiered on The CW on September 19, 2007, and concluded on May 19, 2008, consisting of 18 episodes. Based on the novel series of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar, the series was developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. It tells the story of Serena van der Woodsen's return to Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City following her mysterious disappearance to boarding school in Connecticut, while being watched by gossip website Gossip Girl.

See You Next Tuesday is a 2013 independent drama film directed by Drew Tobia and his first full length feature film. The film had its world premiere on October 13, 2013 at the London Film Festival and Eleanore Pienta as a pregnant woman that has a complicated personal relationship with her family.

<i>How to Make Money Selling Drugs</i> 2012 American film

How to Make Money Selling Drugs is a documentary film written, directed and narrated by Matthew Cooke and produced by Bert Marcus and Adrian Grenier. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically released in June 2013.

<i>Navy Blues</i> (1941 film) 1941 film by Lloyd Bacon

Navy Blues is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, Arthur T. Horman and Sam Perrin. The film stars Ann Sheridan, Jack Oakie, Martha Raye, Jack Haley, Herbert Anderson, Jack Carson, Jackie Gleason and William T. Orr. The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 13, 1941.

Sunita Mani is an Indian-American actress, dancer and comedian. She is best known for her television roles as Trenton in the USA Network drama Mr. Robot (2015–2017) and Arthie Premkumar in the Netflix comedy GLOW (2017–2019). Mani played the lead roles in the 2020 films Save Yourselves! and Evil Eye.

Mumbi Maina is a Kenyan actress known for her role in the soap opera Mali.

Dan Sallitt is an American filmmaker and film critic. He is known for his microbudget filmmaking and cinephile film criticism.

<i>Fourteen</i> (film) 2019 American film

Fourteen is a 2019 American independent film written and directed by Dan Sallitt. The film tracks a mentally ill woman's decline over the course of a decade as seen through her longtime best friend's eyes. It stars Tallie Medel and Norma Kuhling.

Nancy Princenthal is an American art historian, writer, and author. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Norma Zea Kuhling is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Dr. Ava Bekker in the NBC medical drama series Chicago Med and as Jo Mitchel in the 2019 independent film Fourteen.

References

  1. ↑ Bennett, Bruce (2012-06-20). "Brooklyn's I.T.-Guy Auteur". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2023-06-21.
  2. 1 2 Schwartz, Dennis. "An intelligent and chillingly engaging dark arthouse film, dedicated to Eric Rohmer". Dennis Schwartz's Movie Reviews. October 16, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  3. ↑ The Unspeakable Act at Rotten Tomatoes.
  4. ↑ The Unspeakable Act at Metacritic.
  5. ↑ Young, Neil (July 6, 2012). "The Unspeakable Act: Edinburgh Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  6. ↑ Rapold, Nicolas (February 28, 2013). "The Last Few Whiffs of Adolescence". New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  7. ↑ Hunt, Drew (May 16, 2013). "Talkin' 'bout The Unspeakable Act". Chicago Reader. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  8. ↑ The Unspeakable Act at Year-End Lists
  9. ↑ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (September 8, 2018). "Afterword to the Korean Edition of ESSENTIAL CINEMA (updated)". JonathanRosenbaum.net. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  10. ↑ Hall, Tom (June 23, 2012). "Five Questions with The Unspeakable Act Director Dan Sallitt". Filmmaker. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.