Medicine for Melancholy (2007)

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  May 5, 2010

  paulsandberg

  Medicine for this film... a good dose less of self importance and reliance on the indy feel would be what this doctor orders.
  
  The premise is wonderful and the beginning holds much promise - a guy is washing his teeth with his finger while the camera changes angle to a view of ... read moresomeone who is obviously lying in bed watching him. So much is held within those opening shots - it was obviously the aftermath of a party, and you soon find out that this couple coupled for a one night stand. What follows could have been a tight little film about people who are drawn to each other and, in the case of the woman, trying to avoid that attraction (as she is already in a comfy relationship with someone else).
  
  The nice black and white feel of the film works well, and some of the imaginative camera angles and interesting shots of SF help to keep a keen focus, but then the film wanders away into obvious set scenes that allow the filmmaker to get up on his soapbox. It is ok to say what you feel, but in this case it sabotages the film, especially when some of the sentiments spouted are just plain wrong.
  
  Having spent a good portion of my life in and around SF, I can tell you that the contention that the only interratial coupling is between black woman and white men is patently false - SF runs the gammut, blacks with latinos, blacks with orientals, orientals with latinos, you name it.
  
  I also found it confounding that this film confused some of its geography. There is no easy way you can bicycle from the marina district to the tenderloin. You see all those wonderful hills that were filmed in the opening part of the film - those suckers are between the marina and the tenderloin - you either go over them (see how steep they are - not very practical) or go around them (which makes for a lovely five plus mile ride through streets that are clogged with car traffic).
  
  But that aside (and I'm going to ignore the hideous attempt to throw in the little discussion about the gentrification of the city, which was truly lame and should have been left on the cutting room floor), the film certainly had its moments, in spite of an uneven pacing (its slow pace coming almost to a dead stop in the scenes inside the bar - what was that trying to prove???). I can understand the plot line of the man trying to get the woman to embrace her race, but I disliked portraying her as racially insensative instead of, perhaps, enlightened. She had decided to get on with her life and not dwell on reparations; something that was apparant to me, but I'm guessing not what the filmmaker intended as he preferred to portray her as shallow and taking the easy road (see, I'm putting my sociologic views into this review, just as the filmmaker did with his film).
  
  However, I must say that the final morning after scene was beautiful: the camera looking out the apartment window to a bodega across the street, then panning back to the man asleep on the couch - then moving to the empty bed and back around to the window - full 360, and then downward where you can see the woman on her bicycle, heading back to the safety of her upper class marina and out of the man's life. This was a powerful scene, but not perhaps for the reason that the filmmaker intended.

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• 
  
  February 7, 2009

  gator681

  [font=Century Gothic]"Medicine for Melancholy" starts on a Sunday morning following a very wild party in San Francisco. So wild, that a man(Wyatt Cenac) and a woman(Tracey Heggins) had a one night stand and spent the night there. He is attracted to her while she is considering ... read moreit a mistake. That having been said, she agrees to go with him to a coffee shop where they introduce each other as Micah and Angela. After a cab ride home, she accidentally leaves her wallet behind. But her name is not Angela. It is Joanne.[/font]
  [font=Century Gothic][/font]
  [font=Century Gothic]"Medicine for Melancholy" is a thought provoking little number shot in muted tones, except for the very ending. As such, the movie serves as an intelligent examination of identity politics and how it applies to the personal, not only of the individual but also of the city as a whole, providing a unique look at San Francisco and its gentrification as shown masterfully in a political meeting. And Micah's tiny apartment takes on additional significance as it symbolizes a segment of the population being pushed out of the city.[/font]

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  November 13, 2011

  ThomasJayWilliams

  A relatively quiet, slow-paced movie about two strangers spending a day together in gorgeous San Francisco after having a one-night stand. The movie is about meaningful conversation, personal identity, leisurely strolls and bike rides. Very "little" actually happens in the film -... read more- other than a little bit of sex and a lot of talking -- and so this would appeal to very few people. This was the unknown movie I got sent this week from Netflix and I was able to watch it; but that doesn't mean I will be recommending it to any of my friends either. It takes some patience to get through it and some of the acting feels a little staged and rehearsed (not polished, I should say ... I could tell when "action" was yelled behind the camera). Saying that, I believe the male lead, Wyatt Cenac, is a promising actor and could one day find himself in a larger-budget film. The movie is filmed in black and white ... which is most interesting because Cenac's character views the world in black and white -- and not the colors, but the "black" and "white" of race. Everything to him boils down to race. When he asks someone else to impossibly describe themselves using ONLY one word, he says it is an easy task because his one word for himself is black. He has problems with his one-night stand because she is living with and dating a man of a different race -- although she doesn't see it since she views all as human beings. Do we still need to cling to race or are we moving past that? What makes us who we are? I think these were questions she had already answered for herself but his argument and concern over her way of life makes her re-access herself and also examine him. There is a lot of thought here in this fest-winning film and only at the end of the movie do we get a true glimpse of color with a shot of a beautiful bunch of colorful flowers found on a city balcony. What brings about this shot of color? Revealing that would be giving away the film and I don't do that. It is a thoughtful film that I liked (not necessarily enjoyed) ... but it isn't one that many would.

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• Wyatt Cenac as Micah
• Tracey N. Heggins as Jo

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