Grief is one of the most difficult emotions to work through, and people go through the stages of grief in different ways, ways that are not rational. In other words, even when we know a storm is coming, we are not always prepared- physically and emotionally- to handle the tragic events that may occur. Of course, there is that assumption ideal that you have all that you need, but it is all simply a nice dream until that fateful day comes. After that, you might lose track of whom you are addressing and actually end up asking the carpet, “Now what?” Grief is the main motive behind The Secret Art of Human Flight, a delightful little indie gem that is now being released digitally through the forward-looking Kino streaming service.
The Secret Art of Human Flight is directed by H.P. Mendoza and penned by Jesse Orenshein. It was first screened at the Tribeca Film Festival before going on to tour various events. One of the most notable features of the film is Academy Award nominee Paul Raci (Sound of Metal) who from the onset takes hold of the grief worldview from the character of a bizarre healer. Kismet hook him up with Ben (Grant Rosenmeyer) in this wacky story that combines humor, fantasy, and drama, and answers the questions how do we move on and how do we fly.
It’s hard to separate drama in The Secret Art of Human Flight from the fact that the depressive widowed protagonist is not an old or middle aged man but a twenty something type who lost wifes aged only 31 years old. We see the lovely energetic Sarah (Reina Hardesty) not otherwise but only in online videos either posted on social media or currently in the possession of husband Ben (Grant Rosenmeyer) whose purpose is to mourn Sarah privately.
This leads to interesting narrative techniques since this is the only dosage we get of Ben’s now deceased partner, which director Mendoza cleverly adds in the A-story to cut forward to. Effectively, we endure Ben’s quest to calm his mind which, rather interestingly, takes us deeper into the couple’s already complicated relationship. Still, things were not icing on the cake before Sarah died, which makes the feature story even more authentic than is normally the case.
Almost from the beginning, Ben finds himself all by himself in a large, quiet house. Ben’s hot-headed sister Gloria (the terrific Lucy DeVito) and meddlesome husband Tom (Nican Robinson) try to keep Ben sane and — let’s be honest — alive but its more like the widow would rather sit outside on his lawn in the heat with no food or water for days on end until one of them finally gets up and comes over to rescue him.
Now, things in his life now are a mess too: He is late on a mortgage payment; the children’s book project which he started with Sarah has been stagnating for quite a long time and now the lead investigator into Sarah’s murder by her own choking (Rosa Arredondo who is awful pretty) can’t help but think that it was Ben who murdered Sarah. Also, it does not help in his case that they took out life insurance of on each other’s lives when they first got married. Ooof, what a mess indeed.
There is luck and coincidence in history as we know it and it is safe to say that the events that led to the A-story plot thickening in this interesting independent film could also happen randomly. A bored morbidly depressed individual with nothing else to do finds a viral video on YouTube of a guy almost literally diving off a cliff and then leaping once more into the air as if flying. Hold up. What?
The reactions to the clip suggest otherwise which include “this is so fake” and “look at the bad photoshopping.” However, once grief hits, and our otherwise motivated lives start to feel like gibberish, the most far-fetched and eccentric ideas can invade our heads and provide relevance to our lives once more. So, this particular disturbing footage – coupled with a good Google search – sends Ben down the rabbit hole to the dark side of the internet and there he finds out who that guy is. He calls himself Mealworm (naturally) and is played by the always excellent Paul Raci.
It is certainly a plus that there is a bit of star power other than Raci, and this is Lucy says the aforementioned Lucy DeVito and co-star Maggie Grace of who rather adds a dose of ‘grace’ to situations when Ben’s ‘the mealworm’ becomes touch too weird for most. Grace portrays Wendy another grieving female resident who encounters Ben at the center and becomes rather fond of him as they happen to be Mealworm’s students.
In this universe, nothing comes free and in that sense one has to pay for the help of Mealworm who teaches them, or rather Ben how to, in simple terms, “leave this world behind” and quite literally fly. One of thenon’s is controlling their desire of wearing clothes when practicing flying which for Ben involves sleeping almost totally naked outside on the roof which is not going down well with any of the neighbors or Gloria the sister. It is all quite quirky indie film charges filled with old fashion comedy drama that reminds us of the beauty of passion projects that can move and entertain us even without the help of billion dollar marvel budgets in the background. It is perhaps too much out there and funny funny structured for those who like to consume such high purpose and highly funded films, but for others, it is a very niche pleasure.
The act of flying has been viewed in films such as Birdman and Arizona Dream and in the great books so as Song of Solomon, and The Secret Art of Human Flight complements the list. This new book will idealistically motivate those dreamers to clean those crazed passions of theirs and disregard the haters and naysayers that told them ‘forget it’ sometime back in the past. Kids, do not do this at home, but it is perfectly acceptable to appreciate Raci’s unswerving motivation that will undermine any scene at hand through his brilliant performance of a strange character who is intent on passing on his talents, especially to people like Ben (Rosenmeyer does a splendid job of depicting the character who is a perfect mess) who is battling an angst ridden identity crisis.
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