H.P. Mendoza’s The Secret Art of Human Flight

Obviously, you should steer well clear of any New Age tract hawked on the dark web. Unfortunately, Ben Grady is not in a proper state of mind, for understandable reasons. Devastated by the loss of his wife and resenting the investigating detective’s intrusive suspicions, Grady needs something to get him out of his own head. He finds a strange guru who claims he can teach the widower to fly, not as a pilot, but like Superman, in H.P. Mendoza’s The Secret Art of Human Flight, which just released on VOD.

Ben and Sarah Grady worked together self-publishing children’s books, but she was considered the talented one. Det. Reyes only sees her $750K life insurance policy, but his sister Gloria worries her brother is spiraling into a deep depression.

Following a random social media comment to the dark web, Grady ill-advisedly buys a truly self-published—as in handwritten—tome purportedly explaining how humans can fly. It also comes with benefit of the hippy dippy guru’s personal coaching sessions. Initially, Grady is still sufficiently grounded to be suspicious of “Mealworm,” but his bizarre training regime starts satisfying something inside him.

Weirdly, it also sort of fits the advice offered by Wendy, a widow herself and the only member of Sarah’s writing’s circle who keeps checking in. She says find something crazy and stick to it. His flying ambitions certainly qualify.

This film probably would have been a disaster in any hands other than that of Mendoza. As a filmmaker, he has a record of versatility, having helmed the musical Fruit Fly and the disturbingly surreal horror film, I Am a Ghost. He also has a talent for handling heightened emotional content with a deft touch, which serves Human Flight well.

In fact, it was rather required, because Jesse Orenshein’s screenplay has considerable emotional and eccentric excesses. There are times when it tries to be either too whimsical or too sentimental, but Mendoza always brings it back to the emotional center. Indeed, the relationships between the Gradys and the widow and the widower are incredibly resonant—and ultimately much more interesting than whether or not Mealworm will get his padawan airborne.

AAIFF: I Am a Ghost

Just because you’re a ghost, doesn’t mean you can’t be haunted too.  For Emily, “haunted” is not exactly the right term.  Her situation is rather more complicated and creepy as all get-out in H.P. Mendoza’s I Am a Ghost (slightly too revealing trailer here), which screens during the 2012 Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Emily’s existence is one of strictly regimented routine.  Unfortunately, this also includes regular instances of self-abuse.  The audience knows this because we see her repeat the same day over and over.  It might sound laborious in an indulgent experimental kind of way, but stick with it.  When deviations from the pattern start to emerge, they are significant and jarring. 

Emily is a ghost, endlessly repeating the tragic memories she imprinted on the spooky old Victorian house, or at least that is what the disembodied voice tells her.  Understandably, that is not something she wants to her.  Yet, Ghost is just getting started.  Emily has some rather wicked revelations in store for her.

With Ghost, Mendoza might actually break new ground in the field of horror films.  It is really nothing like his previous films, Colma and Fruit Fly, since it is not a musical—not even remotely.  Frankly, Mendoza risks trying viewers’ patience, but he pays off their tolerance with some of the most disconcerting scenes of supernatural dread to hit screens in years.  In fact, the scares in Ghost are so unusually deep, because they are more metaphysical in nature.  Mere violence is small potatoes here.  However, it is difficult to explain how novel and challenging the twists and turns truly are, without getting spoilery.

It is safe to say Ghost is a very cool example of how a chillingly effective genre film can be produced with hardly any special effects.  Aside from maybe one sequence, Ghost relies solely on its lead performance and the moody atmosphere of the fateful house, overstuffed with evocative curios, masterfully rendered by art director-prop designer (and producer) Mark Del Lima.

Still, it is Anna Ishida carrying the picture more or less alone as Emily.  It is quite an extraordinary performance, covering the entire dark side of the emotional spectrum, with only an off-screen voice for support. 

Ghost definitely has the stuff of a cult classic that ought to be a breakout film for both Ishida and Mendoza.  It is smart, original, and unsettling.  Highly recommended for fans of ambitious horror films, I Am a Ghost screens this Friday (8/3) at the Chelsea Clearview Cinemas, as part of this year’s AAIFF.

Hipster Musical: Fruit Fly

If you envision the Broadway show Rent without the tragedy, you will have a pretty good sense of H.P. Mendoza’s latest movie musical. It might be set in San Francisco’s Castro District instead of Alphabet City, but the Bohemian spirit is the same in Fruit Fly (trailer here), which opens Friday in New York

In the film, “Fruit Fly” is offered up as a less derogatory term for a woman who befriends gay men almost exclusively. Bethesda suddenly finds it applied to her, after moving to San Francisco and becoming fast friends with her gay roommate Windham and his circle. They do not break it to her gently either, explaining it to her in a song with the more traditional soubriquet “Fag Hag.”

After a sojourn in the Philippines, Bethesda has come to town in hopes of mounting her one-woman performance-art piece about her search for her birth mother. Almost everyone staying in Bethesda’s Real World-like house harbors similarly artistic ambitions, inspiring some amusing cynicism from their decidedly un-hippy landlord, Tracy.

While Mendoza was the composer, lyricist, and screenwriter for the Indie circuit favorite Colma: the Musical, he also takes the added directorial reins in Fly. Musically, the results are a little uneven. Frankly, the intentionally comedic songs are not particularly memorable. However, it starts with an enjoyably upbeat opener, “Public Transit,” and can claim at least one legitimate standout song, “You Do This for a Reason,” that should become an anthem for frustrated artists everywhere.

Despite her character’s many annoying moments, L.A. Renigen shows an easy likability and decent vocal chops as Bethesda. Her housemates are more of a mixed bag though. Some turn in quite solid supporting work, like E.S. Park and Theresa Navarro as the resident lesbian couple, while others seem to be auditioning for a regional production of Rent. However, there are some truly rich comedic supporting performances by Don Wood as the crusty landlord and Christina Augello as the bane of his existence: “Dirty Judy,” the rent controlled upstairs tenant. “I’m the reason apartments are so expensive,” she profanely gloats in a sharply written, economically informed scene.

Anytime a filmmaker creates an original movie musical, you have to give them due credit for ambition. While decidedly hit-or-miss, Mendoza still succeeds fairly often in Fly. It opens this Friday (9/24) in New York at the Quad Cinema.