Without Air

Rating:
Summary: Acting that disappears into the character.
Review: If you like the blues in music, the real blues that expresses, with an underlying anger, the pain of life, then you will appreciate "Without Air". Set in Memphis, the film portrays several days in the life of Shay, a young blues singer, who cannot seem to rise above her depressing existence, but persists with a tenacity that amounts to courage. When she sings the blues, she is singing from the emotional experiences of her own life; and, when she isn't singing, her life rushes past, out of control. Shay is aware of what is happening to her, but says that she does not know how to be any other way. She feels that she is watching life rather than living it.

Like the French film "La Vie Révée Des Anges" ("The Dreamlife Of Angels"), "Without Air" is a film of direct honesty, depicting sadness and despair with such intensity that the acting disappears into the character. It is based on the life of Lauri Crook, who is in fact a blues singer from Memphis and plays the film's principal character, Shay. Her sensitive portrayal, without any previous acting experience, of a type of life that she has experienced is what makes the film unique. One hopes that Lauri's real life was not as difficult as that of Shay.

"Without Air" comes as close to the idea of a personal cinema, as originally envisioned by the French Nouvelle Vague of the late 1950's, as we are likely to see. Neil Abramson wrote the script, directed the film and performed the cinematography. It was inspired by the life of the actual person that played the principal role. The events depicted occur over a relatively short period of time giving the film a quasi real time flow which, together with a semi-documentary style that does not compromise artistry, makes for a verisimilitude that is both penetrating and beautiful.

Rating:
Summary: Acting that disappears into the character.
Review: If you like the blues in music, the real blues that expresses, with an underlying anger, the pain of life, then you will appreciate "Without Air". Set in Memphis, the film portrays several days in the life of Shay, a young blues singer, who cannot seem to rise above her depressing existence, but persists with a tenacity that amounts to courage. When she sings the blues, she is singing from the emotional experiences of her own life; and, when she isn't singing, her life rushes past, out of control. Shay is aware of what is happening to her, but says that she does not know how to be any other way. She feels that she is watching life rather than living it.

Like the French film "La Vie Révée Des Anges" ("The Dreamlife Of Angels"), "Without Air" is a film of direct honesty, depicting sadness and despair with such intensity that the acting disappears into the character. It is based on the life of Lauri Crook, who is in fact a blues singer from Memphis and plays the film's principal character, Shay. Her sensitive portrayal, without any previous acting experience, of a type of life that she has experienced is what makes the film unique. One hopes that Lauri's real life was not as difficult as that of Shay.

"Without Air" comes as close to the idea of a personal cinema, as originally envisioned by the French Nouvelle Vague of the late 1950's, as we are likely to see. Neil Abramson wrote the script, directed the film and performed the cinematography. It was inspired by the life of the actual person that played the principal role. The events depicted occur over a relatively short period of time giving the film a quasi real time flow which, together with a semi-documentary style that does not compromise artistry, makes for a verisimilitude that is both penetrating and beautiful.

Rating:
Summary: she can sing
Review: The film was so-so but the music fantastic. Was that actually Lauri Crook singing that I-need-a-man song? WOW. Where can I buy a CD with that song on it? She belted out the best blues I have ever heard!

Rating:
Summary: she can sing
Review: The film was so-so but the music fantastic. Was that actually Lauri Crook singing that I-need-a-man song? WOW. Where can I buy a CD with that song on it? She belted out the best blues I have ever heard!