The
standard of living in LA is pretty tough. The real estate market there is nearly
as bad as it is here in New York, but you also really need a car. That is why
an aspiring costume designer jumps at an affordable Hollywood apartment. Of
course, there is a reason it looks too good to be true. There will be no
lease-breaking in director-screenwriter David Marmor’s 1BR, which
releases this Friday on VOD (because that is how things release these days—thanks CCP).
Sarah
has come to Hollywood to pursue her designing dreams, but her dismissive father
is convinced she will never make it. Her fellow temp also thinks she is a poor
little lamb. However, Sarah’s new apartment is initially a source of
encouragement, even though she is secretly keeping her cat in the pet-less
complex. However, strange noises in the walls keep her up at nights. It even
starts effecting her work and studies. Then things take a massively dark turn.
1BR
starts
off like an unnerving Polanski film, but it evolves into something altogether
different and creepy. So far, everyone has respected the film’s secrets, but it
might be the year’s best cinematic critique of coercive collectivism, so far.
Let’s just say terms “security” are used in ways that will make you decidedly
not feel secure.
It
is also a viscerally intense genre film. Frankly, there are some scenes that
are almost too tough to watch. Nevertheless, it is worth the fortitude, because
Marmor’s subsequent revelations are jaw-dropping—and squirm-inducing.
Nicole
Brydon Bloom really helps sell the premise as Sarah. She doesn’t take viewers
on a typical empowerment arc, but it is a believably real and enormously
compelling ride. Likewise, Taylor Nichols (from Whit Stillman’s Metropolitans
and Barcelona) and Susan Davis (David Lightman’s mom in WarGames)
are terrific as Sarah’s very different neighbors.
