{"id":1149,"date":"2017-04-30T18:19:10","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T18:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commarts.pleather.us\/2017\/04\/30\/zosia-mamet-moves-beyond-girls-but-the-result-is-disappointing-with-the-boy-downstairs-tribeca-review\/"},"modified":"2017-04-30T18:19:10","modified_gmt":"2017-04-30T18:19:10","slug":"zosia-mamet-moves-beyond-girls-but-the-result-is-disappointing-with-the-boy-downstairs-tribeca-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/2017\/04\/30\/zosia-mamet-moves-beyond-girls-but-the-result-is-disappointing-with-the-boy-downstairs-tribeca-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Zosia Mamet Moves Beyond \u2018Girls,\u2019 But the Result is Disappointing With \u2018The Boy Downstairs\u2019 \u2014 Tribeca Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the more high-class\u00a0problems is struggling to break free\u00a0of\u00a0an\u00a0iconic role that made you a star in the first place.\u00a0Such is the challenge facing Zosia Mamet<\/a>, whom most people know only as the\u00a0high-strung Shoshanna on\u00a0HBO’s “Girls.” If Shoshanna was the Miranda of her day (as many have said when comparing “Girls” to its predecessor, “Sex and the City”), Mamet has the best chance of\u00a0the “Girls” crew to have a lasting career. Tony winner Cynthia Nixon, who played Miranda, lands plum film roles such as Emily Dickinson in Terence Davies’ “A Quiet Passion,” and is currently starring on Broadway opposite Laura Linney in the revival of Lillian Hellman’s “Little Foxes.” However, if Mamet aspires to such heights, she must\u00a0choose\u00a0better projects\u00a0than “The Boy Downstairs.”<\/p>\n

The debut feature from writer\/director Sophie Brooks, “The Boy Downstairs” grinds\u00a0a smart concept and structure into the ground\u00a0with\u00a0inconsequential results. Mamet plays Diana, an aspiring writer who has recently returned\u00a0to New York from a graduate\u00a0program in London.\u00a0After moving into her dream apartment in a charming Brooklyn brownstone, Diana is shocked to find the name of her teddy bear of an ex boyfriend, Ben (Matthew Shear), on the mailbox of\u00a0the basement apartment.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018The Circle\u2019 Review: Tom Hanks and Emma Watson Star In a Misguided Story of Technology Gone Wrong \u2014 Tribeca 2017<\/a><\/p>\n

Her awkward\u00a0attempts to befriend him don’t go so well, as Ben is clearly not as amused as she is by the unfortunate coincidence. Advising Diana are her widowed landlady, Amy (Deirdre O’Connell), and her sketch of a\u00a0best friend, Gabby (Diana Irvine). Amy used to be an actress, and urges Diana to go for her dreams, while Gabby is either looking for casual sex or a boyfriend; she doesn’t really know, and neither does the movie. The\u00a0plot hits all of its notes via\u00a0flashbacks; the film opens with Ben and Diana’s\u00a0final tearful goodbye, and chronicles their six-month courtship\u00a0from would-be charming gallery dates and trips upstate to meet the parents.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSee More<\/strong>Zosia Mamet on Her First Big Post-\u2018Girls\u2019 Project: \u2018I Had Never Read a Script That Was So Well-Written\u2019<\/a>\n\t\t<\/p>\n

“The Boy Downstairs” is best when Brooks\u00a0juxtaposes\u00a0the devolution of the\u00a0first relationship with its potential\u00a0rekindling. Just as Diana breaks younger Ben’s heart, the pair have an impromptu date at “a great Italian place just around the corner.” (If Brooks is actively courting cliche, she does it well.)<\/p>\n

Though\u00a0Brooks exhibits a command of storytelling structure, “The Boy Downstairs” suffers from an utter lack of point of view and comedic voice. Billed as a comedy, the only people laughing are the characters, at themselves. Witty banter isn’t\u00a0the\u00a0mention of LSD, nor is comedy making a character do aerobics with their landlady.\u00a0Shear squeezes more\u00a0charm out of his character than Mamet, though she has\u00a0the harder task. Noah Baumbach fans will recognize Shear\u00a0from “Mistress America,” co-written by Greta Gerwig, and he will soon appear in Baumbach’s Cannes-bound “The Meyerowitz Stories” and Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs.” Shear’s puppy-dog demeanor and unconventional good looks are a bright spot.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0How a 20-Year-Old Filmmaker Wrote, Directed and Starred In Her Feature Directorial Debut \u2014 Tribeca 2017<\/a><\/p>\n

While both are talented actors, Brooks did herself no favors by their casting as it invites comparison to Dunham, Baumbach, and Gerwig. Unfortunately, “The Boy Downstairs” only shares the most tiring\u00a0and directionless parts\u00a0suggested by that trio, and none of their humorous charm or tortured soul. In the only thing that could\u00a0pass\u00a0for a\u00a0moment of reckoning, Diana tells Amy through sobs: “I don’t know what I’m doing.” Not only do Dunham, Gerwig, and Baumbach know how to make their\u00a0existential crises funny, but you also\u00a0believe in their pain.<\/p>\n

Mamet does\u00a0prove one thing about “Girls”: Dunham is\u00a0a much better writer than people give\u00a0her credit. Without a clearly drawn character,\u00a0Mamet is lost onscreen. As the\u00a0daughter of David Mamet, arguably the greatest living American playwright, she should have known: An actor is nothing without\u00a0good material.<\/p>\n

Grade: C-<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The Boy Downstairs” premiered at the 2017 Tribeca<\/a> Film Festival.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: IndieWire film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the more high-class\u00a0problems is struggling to break free\u00a0of\u00a0an\u00a0iconic role that made you a star in the first place.\u00a0Such is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-1149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-careering"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paqOTj-ix","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}