Sunday, January 19, 2014

Concussion (2013)

Jack and I liked this story of a lesbian suburban housewife who begins a double life as a New York high-class hooker soon after her son accidentally hits her on the head at a baseball game. Robin Weigert (last blogged in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, about someone else with an alter ego) is impressive as Abby (her hooker name is Eleanor--it's not the same as a stripper name) and Maggie Siff (I don't watch Sons of Anarchy but in addition to that and small roles in other things she had a series arc on Mad Men as Rachel Menken Katz, head of Menken's department store) is good as her gym friend Sam.

It's the feature debut of director/writer Stacie Passon and she and/or the movie have won Best First Feature-Special Mention at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and an award at the Berlin International Film Festival and been been nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Breakthrough Director and Best Actress at the Gotham Awards, and Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards (the latter will be awarded March 1). I had heard of producer Rose Troche, and liked very much her work directing Go Fish (1994), Safety of Objects (2001), and 13 episodes of The L Word (producing 18 and writing 6).

We missed the short theatrical run here but caught it on video over a month ago, as it's now available on iTunes and Amazon and the DVD will be for sale in about a week. Because it was so long ago I can't remember the music, written by Barb Morrison, but here's a sample in the trailer. I do remember enjoying the cinematography by David Kruta (his feature debut as head of the department).

Rottentomatoes critics at 75% are kinder than its audiences at 57. Whatever. We still liked it.

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