FIGHTING NIRVANA is a masterpiece of low-budget indie film-making. It doesn't matter that there are only four actors in a single location with simple camera-work. This is a character study akin to a novel or to Cries and Whispers.
From its "To Kill a Mockingbird" opening (a novel approach of epitaphing another film, but using cinematic language) to its ending of a sad yet optimistic poem read in a dying woman's haunting voice-over, FIGHTING NIRVANA has much to say about life, about purpose, and about self-discovery.
The four characters spend the night in a decrepit house. Then they hear strange noises. Then the lights go out. This all sounds like we are in for a slasher flick, doesn't it? But something happens then that I wasn't expecting: the characters begin to talk. Alex and Stephanie are not bickering sisters, nor are they loving ones. Their relationship is beyond complex; there are years of backstory between them and their unseen mother. No father is ever mentioned outside of a boyfriend who gave her books. One can only imagine the years these three women spent together as a family unit that was undoubtedly strained yet loving.
The character of Alex is quickly established as being difficult, and perhaps it's not a complete surprise when it's revealed she is gay. But for all her vicious retorts, most of her performance is unstated. She is gorgeous and strangely vulnerable. In the film's final moments, she makes a speech to Bruce and Jeff, and experiences an entire arc in just that monologue. I can think of few other films (Robert Altman comes to mind) where a character just opens up and lets out a stream-of-consciousness speech about the surprises, frustrations, and musings of being a human being. Her homosexuality neither defines her character nor shuns it; it is an intricate part of her that she realizes she cannot divorce from her logical being.
I don't think of this movie as a comedy, yet humor flows organically from its dialog. Virtually anything Jeff says becomes a catchphrase, from "abdomen crunches" to "lesbian cow." But for every time that it seems Jeff will steal the movie, the others find a way to regain it. Bruce is perhaps the plainest character of the four, but his bedroom scene with Stephanie floors me in its intimacy. The characters discuss sexuality in a way that might seem raunchy in a lesser movie, but they are so honest that the audience is never alienated, but at times may be ashamed to admit how much they can relate.
This review is getting long and I haven't even mentioned the missing money, or the unanswered questions of the plot. Just where did the liquid ammonia go? Wasn't that hotel fire just a little too convenient? Like the climatic fire in Fanny and Alexander, we have to go by supernatural logic. Or, as the final epilogue indicates, maybe Stephanie's dreams filled in the holes of the evening. The film's mysteries are also its treasures.
What a magical film, with characters at such a cerebral level! You don't need a big budget to make a work of art, or to make a film that flows as naturally as real life.
From its "To Kill a Mockingbird" opening (a novel approach of epitaphing another film, but using cinematic language) to its ending of a sad yet optimistic poem read in a dying woman's haunting voice-over, FIGHTING NIRVANA has much to say about life, about purpose, and about self-discovery.
The four characters spend the night in a decrepit house. Then they hear strange noises. Then the lights go out. This all sounds like we are in for a slasher flick, doesn't it? But something happens then that I wasn't expecting: the characters begin to talk. Alex and Stephanie are not bickering sisters, nor are they loving ones. Their relationship is beyond complex; there are years of backstory between them and their unseen mother. No father is ever mentioned outside of a boyfriend who gave her books. One can only imagine the years these three women spent together as a family unit that was undoubtedly strained yet loving.
The character of Alex is quickly established as being difficult, and perhaps it's not a complete surprise when it's revealed she is gay. But for all her vicious retorts, most of her performance is unstated. She is gorgeous and strangely vulnerable. In the film's final moments, she makes a speech to Bruce and Jeff, and experiences an entire arc in just that monologue. I can think of few other films (Robert Altman comes to mind) where a character just opens up and lets out a stream-of-consciousness speech about the surprises, frustrations, and musings of being a human being. Her homosexuality neither defines her character nor shuns it; it is an intricate part of her that she realizes she cannot divorce from her logical being.
I don't think of this movie as a comedy, yet humor flows organically from its dialog. Virtually anything Jeff says becomes a catchphrase, from "abdomen crunches" to "lesbian cow." But for every time that it seems Jeff will steal the movie, the others find a way to regain it. Bruce is perhaps the plainest character of the four, but his bedroom scene with Stephanie floors me in its intimacy. The characters discuss sexuality in a way that might seem raunchy in a lesser movie, but they are so honest that the audience is never alienated, but at times may be ashamed to admit how much they can relate.
This review is getting long and I haven't even mentioned the missing money, or the unanswered questions of the plot. Just where did the liquid ammonia go? Wasn't that hotel fire just a little too convenient? Like the climatic fire in Fanny and Alexander, we have to go by supernatural logic. Or, as the final epilogue indicates, maybe Stephanie's dreams filled in the holes of the evening. The film's mysteries are also its treasures.
What a magical film, with characters at such a cerebral level! You don't need a big budget to make a work of art, or to make a film that flows as naturally as real life.
