Low Down

A short excerpt from the real life of jazz pianist Joe Albany, a great musician who spent his life in the grip of heroin addiction. It's very indie and only for those who like slow-moving films set to the rhythm of smooth jazz, piano, saxophone and all-encompassing calm. There are no heated emotions, you’ll just enjoy the great actors (the brilliant John Hawkes bears a striking resemblance to Albany, I believed everyone, even Elle Fanning), the piano sounds, the atmosphere of loneliness, and you’ll applaud Kiedis and Flea (who has a small but memorable role) from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers who financed and produced this film. I didn't feel like they were playing an unfair game with me, and that's the way it should be. Only Peter Dinklage's cameo is completely unnecessary in scope and importance in the plot. (16.06.2016)

In my opinion, it is fundamentally wrong to make a film with characters that are unsympathetic and there is nothing about them at all that lets the viewer empathize with them, feel kinship to them, understand their motivations and cheer for them. As soon as they viewers lose interest in them, they know longer care what happen to them, or in the film itself, regardless of its craftsmanship and acting (none of which is bad, but neither is it dazzling). The protagonists in Submergence are drowning in shit and they can only blame themselves for it (the main protagonist is apathetic and passive to her surroundings and to her situation, her father is addicted to heroin, her mother to alcohol), and she does not even really try to change the situation. What the hell is attractive about it, other than the adaptation of the book based on real events? In addition, the film drags and a number of the side plots are unnecessary (see all of the passages in which Peter Dinklage appears). Drugs are bad, yes, but I've learned that from a number of better films... (07.07.2014)