Tribeca Film Festival Film Review - Tilt

Joseph Burns (Joseph Cross) should be at a good point in his life. He has just come back from a great vacation in Hawaii with his expectant wife Joanne (Alexia Rasmussen). The documentary filmmaker  is working on a new project entitled Golden Age. His wife works at a medical as she's about to embark on full time medical studies to become a doctor.  Joseph works at home spending a lot of time on his new project then keeping house in his downtime hours.

But Joseph has other activities in mind that take over his being in the late night hours. He has an urge to go outside and interact with the night owls in the city whether his advances are welcomed or not.  His initial nocturnal outings start with errands to pick up items at the local convenience store sneaking a quick smoke on route although he's not supposed to but his nighttime crawls grow from there as he is seeming followed by the presence of a Japanese tourist that has gone missing.

Writer director Karsa Farahani tells a slow steady building story of a man that is loosing his grip on reality. At first he retreats away from family and friends then can't face up to the criticism from his wife that his passion of documentary film making is not enough to provide for the family with a child coming and Joanne's imminent switch to become a full time student. His daylight hours are spent drinking and editing clips while struggling with the voice over on Golden Age production that aims to prove that the American dream is an untrue story.

Joseph Cross is onscreen for just about ever frame of the piece. He captures fully the nature of the underachiever that married up well. Shining particularly brightly in a scene early on in the piece where he is completely uninterested in entertaining his wives friends. Alexia Rasmussen is strong as his supporting wife Joanne defending Joseph to her friends and loyal even as she can see that he is slowly loosing his grip.

Tilt is perhaps the first film to react to the Donald Trump Presidency. The Presidential campaign and his speeches serve as a background to several scenes making his voice a defacto soundtrack to the piece. Joseph spends many an evening on the couch dismissing Trump while his wife remarks if you don't like him why do you watch him all the time. Cinematographer Alexander Alexandrov lens framing of L.A. at night ads a gritty feel to Joseph's nighttime adventures. The production is the story of a man seeing his old life and passions going away due to change in society who's seemingly mentally not able to accept it.

*** 1/2 Out of 4.

Tilt | Karsa Farahani | U.S.A. | 2017 | 99 Minutes.

Tags: Pregnancy, Ultrasound, Hawaii, Japanese Tourist, Documentary Filmmaker, Medical School, Smoking, Convenience Store.