"The African Desperate" -- Movie Review

 

This weekend, I attended the closing night of the New Directors/New Films Festival and caught the World Premiere of the drama, “The African Desperate”. 

Synopsis

When a young woman completes her college studies, she intends to return home – but when she gets pressured into attending a graduation party, but when the party gets out of control, will her plans get derailed?

Story

Palace (Diamond Stingily) has just about had it at this point.  It’s 2017 and she is going for her Master Of Fine Arts degree at a college in a rural part of upstate New York.  She’s done with the school, her academic advisors and – as a city gal from Chicago – she’s especially done with the bucolic community in which she’s been stuck for far too long.  Right now, she just wants to get this whole excruciatingly annoying process over with so she can go back to Chicago as soon as possible to deal with some family matters.  Upon learning she has earned her degree, Palace goes off to be alone for some much needed “self-care”. 

As she’s relaxing before her big trip the next day, a bunch of her friends reach out to her about the graduation party scheduled for that evening where Palace had promised to DJ.  Palace insists that she’s not going, but ultimately is guilted into attending.  Once there, things go haywire rather quickly.  Aside from socializing with many folks she has come to know during her studies, Palace begins imbibing to excess and indulging in illicit narcotics offered to her by her fellow party-goers.  Before very long, Palace begins to feel the effects of the combination of all of these various substances in her body; she passes out in the parking lot before she can even get to her car. 

That night, a young man Palace knows finds her and helps her into the car to sleep it off.  The next morning, she awakens to find that he’s still there in the car and he explains to her how they wound up there.  She quickly rebuffs him when she determines that he’s merely looking for a last-minute hook-up; once she dumps him, she returns to her place to prepare for her travel home.  Unfortunately, she gets side-tracked by some of her other friends with whom she attended the party the night before.  With her train scheduled to leave before 10AM, Palace scrambles to get to the station on time.  Will Palace be too late for the train or will she make it just in time and make it back to Chicago?   

Review

Why is the lead character in “The African Desperate” studying Fine Arts?  Couldn’t the protagonist in fact be majoring in just about anything?  Well, it turns out that the answer lies in the background of the director and her star.  Both of them studied Fine Arts in college, so, they are working in a milieu in which they are both quite familiar.  One gets the impression while watching this film that it was made primarily (if not exclusively) for the director’s fellow students – in which case, it would be a rather limited audience indeed.  For those who are recent graduates (regardless of their field of study), they might find this to be a more enjoyable movie.     

Much of the second act of “The African Desperate” takes place at the graduation party; this party seemingly goes on forever (which appears to have been intentional).  While the party drags on and the lead character doesn’t give the appearance of having any fun, she merely intakes copious amounts of alcohol and drugs, rendering herself sick and ultimately incapacitated by the end of her night.  While one might think we are expected to feel for her, we wind up feeling more compassion for the people around her that have to put up with her self-centered behavior.  The audience is given opportunities to root for this character, but then they ultimately get wasted by her obnoxious behavior.

Following the screening, there was an interview with Director Martine Syms and the star of “The African Desperate” Diamond Stingily.  Syms said that the title came from someone who was talking about “the African Diaspora” when they mispronounced it as “the African Desperate”.  She figured that would be a good title because of the theme of desperation – this is the character’s last day at school so she has nothing to lose and can say or do anything she wants.  Part of her intention with the film was to play with space and time – certain scenes would either be sped up or slowed down; as an example, Palace’s one day can feel very long in the context of the movie.