Hi everyone!
Welcome back for another Indie Wednesday spotlight. One Movie Punch continues to extend our network with today’s segment, allowing both myself and our audience a taste of the microbudget and independent features being produced. Sometimes we find hidden gems. Sometimes we find films that have problems. Today’s film is a daytime noir that definitely sits in the former category, especially if you live in, or like to make fun of, Los Angeles and its quirkier denizens.
Even better, I had a chance to speak with writer/director Alex Goldberg about the film, which stars his spouse, Catia Ojeda, in the lead role. We talk about the film itself, what it’s like to work with your spouse, Los Angeles, and a whole lot more. I’ll be interspersing segments from that interview throughout the review. In lieu of running a promo, we’ll be playing the full trailer audio beforehand for CLOSURE (2019).
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Here we go!
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Today’s movie is CLOSURE (2019), the daytime comedy noir film written and directed by Alex Goldberg. After making a promise to her dying mother, and in the midst of the fallout of her long-term relationship, Nina (Catia Ojeda) has flown out to Los Angeles in search of her estranged sister to deliver the news. But when she learns from her former roommate Yasmina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) that her sister’s been missing for weeks, Nina begins a search around Los Angeles, which leads her to some dark and funny places.
No spoilers.
I can remember the first time I landed in Los Angeles. It was a very busy time in my life, having just graduated college and accepted a job at a consulting firm, with a project based in the San Fernando Valley. I arrived late at night, and after arguing with the car rental place over my age, started driving in one of the largest cities in the world. This was before GPS was really a thing for consumer use, or even before you could get directions printed off the Internet, so I ended up driving around lost for about two hours, getting more and more frustrated, and scared, and not finding help from just about anywhere I stopped. I remember checking into the hotel, passing out from exhaustion, and very little of the orientation the next day.
It was the first major culture shock of my life, where I was all alone in a completely new place. I was just twenty-three years old, and it was a mess of emotions. I spent the entire first week learning the highways, finding places to eat, discovering the huge diversity in radio stations, and learning about the people around me. And they were... different.
ALEX: “Well, the inspiration was when my wife, Catia Ojeda, and I had moved to Los Angeles. We had been working in New York, and we came to LA, and there’s a bit of a culture shock. Not as dramatic as say... I mean, New York is a big metropolis, as is Los Angeles. In our field, we found a lot of people who were really self-driven and you’d meet them and they would talk a lot about themselves. I wanted to spin a tale where someone needs to solve a mystery, and no one is not only helping them out, but doesn’t particularly care.”
I don’t mean different in a bad way, but compared to my mostly monochromatic upbringing, in Los Angeles, I was being exposed to new people and lifestyles at a very rapid pace, doing my best to adapt while not offending anyone. My experience is why I connected so much with Catia Ojeda’s excellent fish out of water performance as Nina. I’ve seen plenty of films where actors have clearly forgotten those initial, tumultuous feelings, but Ojeda nails that combination of uneasiness and excitement in an accessible, genuine way. Her reactions to those around her, as she’s introduced to spiritual practices, alternative diets, and open relationships, feels very authentic, probably because Alex and Catia have lived it.
ALEX: “Here’s a big story, actually. So, when we came to LA, we brought my play ‘It is Done’, which she starred in. So, we did a production in Hollywood. It got great reviews. We did well. She started working and the play got optioned into a movie. So, when I signed the option agreement, I realized a couple of things. One, they could fire me at any time. That’s normal. It’s my idea, but they could take me off it. And there’s really no shot she would get to play the part, let alone audition for it. And that’s standard. So, I’m getting some work going on over here. She’s getting work over there, and we’re like, let’s try to create something where we can work together on something. So, that’s why I wrote it with her in mind.”
Surrounding Nina is a host of unique characters, including: her sister’s current roommate, Yasmina, a pan-spiritualist actor/model; her sister’s neighbors, the ironically named Prudence (Milena Govich) and her probably over-tolerant boyfriend Jack (John Sloan); and eventually, Hugo (Tom Choi) a rich man looking for a long-term relationship using a bizarre method. Tom Choi is one of the hardest working actors in the business, with a filmography that is a CVS receipt long, and he was perfect for the character.
ALEX: “He’s awesome. There’s a couple things about Tom. One is, yeah, he was perfect for the role, because he’s got these rugged, leading man looks, but he also projects a nice guy and a funny guy, which is important because after all of these characters, in this particular venue, when she meets this guy, you don’t want him to be sleazy, at least not at first. You want him to be someone that oh, maybe she can trust this guy. And for the most part, he is trustworthy and it comes across that way.”
A great story and a great cast are paired with some very excellent musical selections. CLOSURE’s soundtrack is a combination of straight-ahead jazz scoring and more contemporary, groovier, even electronic jazz of today. Noir works best with jazz, but modern noir needs modern sounds, and this particular pairing is the result of two key individuals involved with the project.
ALEX: “I met a guy named Zak Shelby-Szyszko, who is big in the modern jazz world. He works for a couple of labels and the Angel City Jazz Festival. And I brought him the script, and I said, ‘Do you think you can help me find contemporary artists: (1) who would be interested in this, and (2) who would work on our very limited budget?’ He was able to pull a bunch of names. Some very well known in the jazz circle. Some up and coming. So, we had a lot of choices to work from. The other person is Jamie Christopherson, who is our composer. And he came to us through our producer. And he liked the vibe we were doing. He had already heard some of the pieces that Zak had brought in, and said, ‘Let’s... I can score around this.’ So a lot of the more traditional jazz elements were his pieces, including that trumpet you mentioned, which is so great.
Are there any drawbacks to CLOSURE? Not any more than other low-budget and independent productions. That’s doubly so around Los Angeles, where permitting is some of the most tedious and most expensive to acquire. It was also shot over twelve days, due to the competing schedules of the principle cast, which makes the final output quite remarkable. CLOSURE might lack a great deal of the polish that can only come from massive budgets and exclusive schedules, but it more than makes up for it between Goldberg’s excellent story and Ojeda’s authentic performance. So, how much did this incredible daytime noir cost?
ALEX: “I don’t have the exact number. We’re in the $100,000 range, so between $100,000 and $200,000. I know people are making movies for $7,000 and $10,000. That’s ultra. That’s super low-budget. I mean, we had a crew, and that’s how you do it in twelve days. You have a DP who’s awesome, who brings in her own camera people she trusts. Our art department... department in quotes, it’s a small group... they were like, ‘Let me bring in my people so we can move quickly.’ Yeah, twelve days is tough. So, it was two six-day weeks of principle photography, then we had three splinter days where we had really limited crew. The second and third splinter day, we didn’t have audio. We just shot MOS.”
Sometimes producers like to hide budget numbers, especially in an age of box office comparisons, but I’ll just say that you won’t find many other modern films being made for $200,000 that are this well put together. Especially in Los Angeles. Kudos to the whole team involved in this picture.
CLOSURE (2019) is a daytime noir picture about a woman searching for her lost sister in the City of Angels, with the mostly unhelpful assistance of those around her. Catia Ojeda plays an excellent fish out of water, as her character moves between mystery and comedy, all accompanied by an excellent jazz score and soundtrack. If you are looking for a fun and engaging film, that pokes fun at the quirkier sides of Los Angeles, absolutely look no further. You won’t regret spending ninety minutes on this film.
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Metacritic: NR
One Movie Punch: 8.1/10
CLOSURE (2019) is not rated and is currently available on VOD and with ads on Tubi.
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