STINKING HEAVEN (2015) - ♦♦♦♦♦

Directed by - Nathan Silver 

Written by - Deragh Campbell, Jack Dunphy, Hannah Gross, Keith Poulson, Nathan Silver

Starring - Deragh Campbell, Henri Douvry, Hannah Gross, Eleonore Hendricks

"STINKING HEAVEN feels like the culmination of the exciting experimentation that has made NATHAN SILVER one of the most respected figures in American indie cinema and the film festival circuit. Here, we find a lot of his favoured subjects and themes, such a hopeless search for utopia and an array of characters that seem broken. 

STINKING HEAVEN takes place in a sober community and is made up of people trying to recover from a past of drug addiction. The strength of the film also comes from its authenticity - set at the start of the nineties, and shot with a video camera popular at those times that adds a type of texture that makes the colour palette look vibrant and pure. 

This authenticity is also enhanced by the use of improvisation by the cast, a familiar technique in SILVER's filmmaking language, that treasures genuine awkwardness and accentuates it by allowing the camera to be almost too close to the characters, which makes the impact with a viewer all the more uncomfortable and real - especially as the emotional chaos of this one of a kind group portrait unfolds."

Drama, USA