How to make a good movie quickly on a budget – How To Follow Strangers
First, you need a talented director, a creative scriptwriter (in this case the two are the same person), convincing actors with authentic dialogues, and some cleverly chosen locations. For the story you need a boy and a girl, love, humour and pain. In How To Follow Strangers, Chioke Nassor’s first feature film, all these boxes are ticked.
Here is the good idea: a boy and a girl on opposite sides of a metro station. When they notice each other, it’s like they were looking into a mirror: similar clothes, similar hair, even their facial features are alike. They wave to each other every morning, before the trains arrive. But then the boy disappears. The girl waits for him for days and cannot get him out of her head. She starts investigating to find out where he has gone.
The story is based on the characters of the two protagonists and the dialogues between them (small budget, limited amount of time, independent film.) The two lead actors – Ilana Glazer and Chris Roberti – studied in an improvisation based acting school, so their performances feel very natural. The director conjures them into very loveable characters. The more they bump into each other “by accident”, the more we learn about them. Slowly the story’s third protagonist, New York City, also introduces itself.
The film could even be categorized as a romantic comedy. The witty dialogues and the cleverly invented close-to-life situations result in plenty of funny scenes. For example, leading female Eleanor’s daily routine of fighting the disgust of passersby in her job as an environmental charity collector, or her regretting her drunken actions (everyone will be familiar with the feeling “I had too much to drink last night and did something I shouldn’t have”). However, Nassor is also cautious not to use the bored, cheesy, clichés of typical romcoms. With skilful balance he is also able to keep a serious tone for the movie by tracing the character’s problematic private lives, burdened with ex-lovers. Death plays a major role in the lives of the characters. One of the storylines was inspired by a real event: a wealthy woman’s body in an elegant Chanel suit was only found a year after her death in a Manhattan flat. This shocking example of urban alienation not only inspired the director to create the movie, but also changes the life of one of its protagonists.
How To Follow Strangers is a funny, but at the same time dramatically deep, bittersweet story about love, death and the complicated nature of human relationships. It might remind you of the director’s favourite movie, Annie Hall, or one of last year’s success stories, Silver Linings Playbook. The next time you are at a metro station, it might inspire you to look at the other side — maybe you will see a stranger you want to follow.
originally published in Hungarian (as part of a joint review) at: http://filmtekercs.hu/fesztival/titanic-20-tiszta-amerika
How to Follow Strangers (2013)
86 min - Drama | Mystery | Romance
World premier at the Titanic Film Festival, Budapest - 08 April 2013 (Hungary)
28 October 2013 (USA)
Director: Chioke Nassor
Writer: Chioke Nassor
Music: Tim Bright, Jesse Novak
Cinematography: Tyler Ribble
Producer: Chioke Nassor, Sunanda Sachatrakul, Annie Munro Sloan
Editing: Amy McGrathStars: Ilana Glazer (Ellie), Chris Roberti (Casey), Eunice Anderson (Anne)