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Joined: 2006-06-08 19:52
Last Online: MAY 14 2008 04:17PM
- Film: THE LIMBO ROOM
- Film: FROM ROCKAWAY
Film Production Blog "Limbo"
BOX OFFICE REVIEW
Jul 08, 2006 07:53PM
The Limbo Room **** (4 stars)
"The Limbo Room" is one of those movies that's hard to categorize but easy to
admire. The premise is essentially a comedic one: an existential look at the life of a struggling actress named Ann (Andrea Powell) who is stuck in a seemingly never-ending rut as understudy to a temperamental diva (Melissa Leo) in a modestly successful off-Broadway show. As Ann nears 40, the tectonic plates of ennui and immobility she's built her world on begin to shift perceptibly. Her boyfriend of a decade proposes, but only to take her father up on the condo he promised to buy the couple if they marry. Meanwhile things start getting odd at the show, as a male lead dies, and weird accusations of onstage aggression start to fly between the leading lady Ann yearns to replace and the male understudy who has made the leap Ann dreams about: from "the limbo
room," where the replacement actors are kept separated from the actual cast, to a major role as a leading player.
Co-writer/director Debra Eisenstadt is an actress herself who understudied the
original stage production of David Mamet's sexual harassment drama "Oleanna" before taking over Rebecca Pidgeon's lead role as the accusing student when Mamet adapted his work to the screen. Understudying "Oleanna" informs Eisenstadt's movie in more ways than one. She has a trenchant understanding of the thousand humiliations that populate
the peripheral showbiz world she's chronicling, but has married it to a dark,
Mamet-esque sexual undercurrent that provides a harrowing twist ending which shocks the viewer but somehow seems entirely bought and paid for by what has gone before.
In its own subtle way, "The Limbo Room" trumps the more stentorian "Oleanna" by presenting a stirring drama of ideas in an accessible plotline that moves almost imperceptibly from light to dark. A large portion of credit goes to the subtle performances Eisenstadt gets from a cast that includes Zack Griffiths as the bad boy understudy who makes good and "Station Agent" star Peter Dinklage in yet another of his seemingly endless showy cameos, in this case as a fey theatrical agent. The ever-resourceful Melissa Leo breaks out of her recent run of desperate blue-collar hausfraus with a broad and winning caricature of an aging drama queen, while Andrea Powell strikes
an intriguing balance between empathetic striver and the very real despair and
desperation that lurks just beneath Ann's plucky surface. -- Ray Greene
THE EGYPTIAN THEATER in HOLLYWOOD- July 20th @ 8pm
Jun 20, 2006 07:06AM
Thursday, July 20 - 8:00 PM ALTERNATIVE SCREEN
Come to THE AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUEvin Hollywood California-
Sneak Preview!: THE LIMBO ROOM, 2006, 80 min., USA. Join us in July for a new feature about the blurring of reality and fiction in the lives of New York stage actors working on a play involving an onstage rape. Life in the theatre and the politics of sex are bared in the latest film from award-winning filmmaker Debra Eisenstadt (DAYDREAM BELIEVER). Long-time Off Broadway understudy Ann (Andrea Powell) gets a much needed dose of hope when a fellow understudy (Melissa Leo, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES) takes over a principle role to much acclaim. Meanwhile Ann’s boyfriend encourages her to take a leading role in her own life.
Come to THE AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUEvin Hollywood California-
Sneak Preview!: THE LIMBO ROOM, 2006, 80 min., USA. Join us in July for a new feature about the blurring of reality and fiction in the lives of New York stage actors working on a play involving an onstage rape. Life in the theatre and the politics of sex are bared in the latest film from award-winning filmmaker Debra Eisenstadt (DAYDREAM BELIEVER). Long-time Off Broadway understudy Ann (Andrea Powell) gets a much needed dose of hope when a fellow understudy (Melissa Leo, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES) takes over a principle role to much acclaim. Meanwhile Ann’s boyfriend encourages her to take a leading role in her own life.
Limbo evolution/inspiration
Jun 15, 2006 08:52PM
Some years ago, I decided to make a documentary which followed an actress and her understudy through the run of a Broadway show. While filming, the actress began accusing a co-star of harassing her every night on stage during the play’s rape scene. Her understudy seemed to suspect that there was some truth in these allegations yet she was afraid of getting involved. In fact, no one in the theater really wanted anything to do with the actress’s claims. Unfortunately, I was asked to discontinue the project when the actress took the case to Equity court...
It was a coincidence that one of my first jobs as both an actress and an understudy had been in David Mamet’s Oleanna, a play that deals entirely with rape accusations and harassment, ending with a professor beating up his student. I began understudying the role of the student after the play had been running for a while. The actress leaving the play was suffering the effects of the character she’d been playing 8 performances a week for almost a year. I was asked to take over the role and felt I would be immune to such a reaction. I later realized that being affected one way or another was unavoidable. When you’re playing out any character’s story on stage for an extended period of time it becomes a sometimes surreal and often challenging experience.
These observations coupled with a script about the life and psyche of a professional understudy that I had been developing for a long time with my sister, writer Jill Eisenstadt, were the inspirations for THE LIMBO ROOM.
The production came together soon after I discovered I was pregnant. I was determined to make another film and realized I didn’t have much time. Alessandra Gatien and I had been working on another project altogether, which we abandoned, to produce THE LIMBO ROOM. Thanks to willing friends, family, cast and crew- we made a film on a microscopic budget in a miraculous 9 days.
It was a coincidence that one of my first jobs as both an actress and an understudy had been in David Mamet’s Oleanna, a play that deals entirely with rape accusations and harassment, ending with a professor beating up his student. I began understudying the role of the student after the play had been running for a while. The actress leaving the play was suffering the effects of the character she’d been playing 8 performances a week for almost a year. I was asked to take over the role and felt I would be immune to such a reaction. I later realized that being affected one way or another was unavoidable. When you’re playing out any character’s story on stage for an extended period of time it becomes a sometimes surreal and often challenging experience.
These observations coupled with a script about the life and psyche of a professional understudy that I had been developing for a long time with my sister, writer Jill Eisenstadt, were the inspirations for THE LIMBO ROOM.
The production came together soon after I discovered I was pregnant. I was determined to make another film and realized I didn’t have much time. Alessandra Gatien and I had been working on another project altogether, which we abandoned, to produce THE LIMBO ROOM. Thanks to willing friends, family, cast and crew- we made a film on a microscopic budget in a miraculous 9 days.
Film Maker's Blog
Hollywood CA- The Egyptian Theater-July 20th @ 8pm
Jun 20, 2006 07:04AM
Thursday, July 20 - 8:00 PM ALTERNATIVE SCREEN
Come to THE AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE
for a-
Sneak Preview!: THE LIMBO ROOM, 2006, 80 min., USA. Join us in July for a new feature about the blurring of reality and fiction in the lives of New York stage actors working on a play involving an onstage rape. Life in the theatre and the politics of sex are bared in the latest film from award-winning filmmaker Debra Eisenstadt (DAYDREAM BELIEVER). Long-time Off Broadway understudy Ann (Andrea Powell) gets a much needed dose of hope when a fellow understudy (Melissa Leo, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES) takes over a principle role to much acclaim. Meanwhile Ann’s boyfriend encourages her to take a leading role in her own life.
Come to THE AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE
for a-
Sneak Preview!: THE LIMBO ROOM, 2006, 80 min., USA. Join us in July for a new feature about the blurring of reality and fiction in the lives of New York stage actors working on a play involving an onstage rape. Life in the theatre and the politics of sex are bared in the latest film from award-winning filmmaker Debra Eisenstadt (DAYDREAM BELIEVER). Long-time Off Broadway understudy Ann (Andrea Powell) gets a much needed dose of hope when a fellow understudy (Melissa Leo, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES) takes over a principle role to much acclaim. Meanwhile Ann’s boyfriend encourages her to take a leading role in her own life.
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