It’s so easy to see how so much of independent cinema, especially famous directors’ debut films, are influenced by this. You can see stuff from Scorsese’s WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR to Spike Lee’s SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT to Linklater’s SLACKER. The fight scene at the end felt particularly real, as every sound and punch felt so brutal that I could feel each blow. I’m not sure about the improvisational stuff here, since my research came up with it being improvised and others saying it was scripted. Regardless of that, the idea of a completely improvised performance speaks to the jazz world that the characters occupy. The best scene is the scene that inspired the film — when Tony finds out Lelia is Black. It’s so good. The music by Charles Mingus and Shafi Hadi is phenomenal and one of the biggest characters of the film. Ben Carruthers was a real stand-out among the cast. He gets so much across with so little or even when his eyes are hidden behind sunglasses. His whole look is also really great. It echos a bit of the Greaser vibe from the ‘50s mixed with the style and attitude of James Dean. This also feels so young, not only in the characters or the world, but also in the sheer essence of the film. There’s a lot of shots that feel like a first time filmmaker (probably due to the use of a handled 16mm camera, small budget, and lack of location permits). The characters and their struggles are just young — wether it’s Lelia’s naiveté or Hugh’s lack of comprise of his “art.”
