Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen - Maltin, Leonard [16]
One must understand that not only did Singer live underground for the better part of two years, without any income, he also had no idea how his film would turn out. Would there be clearly defined characters and a story to tell, or would he wind up with a sociological study of limited interest to a general audience?
As it happens, certain characters did command the screen, and in the course of time, a climactic event did present itself. The resulting film, edited by Melissa Niedich, is mesmerizing and unique.
Dark Days won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival and gathered more acclaim in the months that followed, including Best Documentary prizes from the Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
It was at one of those ceremonies that I met Marc Singer and invited him to my class at USC. He readily accepted and provided one of the most memorable evenings the class has ever experienced. My students were moved by the film, but it was Singer himself who knocked us out. He spoke with a total lack of guile or pretention, and revealed that when a New York City Housing Authority representative told him about the possibility of apartment vouchers being made available to the subjects of his film, he put his camera down and spent the next six months helping his friends acclimate to a new life aboveground. He may not be a professional filmmaker, but he is quite possibly some sort of saint.
One wonderful postscript: I asked him what it was like to be the object of so much attention at Sundance. He told me that as a result of the clamor there he was contacted by several agents who wanted to know if he’d be interested in directing Hollywood movies. They even offered him scripts to consider. Clearly, they hadn’t seen the film, or paid attention to it, only to the response throughout Park City.
P.S. Singer hasn’t made another film since Dark Days.
21. THE DEAD GIRL
(2006)
Directed by Karen Moncrieff
Screenplay by Karen Moncrieff
Actors:
TONI COLLETTE
PIPER LAURIE
ROSE BYRNE
MARY BETH HURT
MARCIA GAY HARDEN
BRITTANY MURPHY
KERRY WASHINGTON
GIOVANNI RIBISI
JAMES FRANCO
MARY STEENBURGEN
BRUCE DAVISON
NICK SEARCY
JOSH BROLIN
The Dead Girl is a dark, daring picture with juicy roles for some of the most talented actresses around: Toni Collette, Marcia Gay Harden, Rose Byrne, Kerry Washington, Mary Beth Hurt, Piper Laurie, Mary Steenburgen, and Brittany Murphy. In spite of that cast, the somber tone of the movie (and its title) kept people away. They missed out on a provocative film and a couple of powerhouse performances.
The Dead Girl was written and directed by Karen Moncrieff, a former actress who had long runs on several daytime soap operas before deciding that she wanted to write—and just possibly, write material that was better than what she was being handed to perform. She made her filmmaking debut with Blue Car, which was very well received. Her second film presents us with five vignettes about women who have little in common except troubling and unresolved issues in their lives.
Toni Collette stars in the first segment, about a woman who lives under the thumb of her demanding mother (Piper Laurie), until she discovers the body of a dead girl near her house. In a strange way this becomes a liberating experience for her, and indirectly leads to her meeting a young man (Giovanni Ribisi) who may free her from servitude.
We then meet a forensics student (Rose Byrne, now familiar to viewers of the TV series Damages), who works in the local morgue, and may have a personal link to the deceased…a haggard housewife (Mary Beth Hurt) who makes a shocking