Urbania

Urbania

          The dark, moody URBANIA premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film
  Festival, was the closing night presentation at the GenArt Film Festival
  and has been screened at numerous gay and lesbian film festivals around
  the USA. Adapted by director Jon Shear and Daniel Reitz and based on
  Reitz's play Urban Legends, the film boasts an impressive look. Director
  Shear and cinematographer Shane Kelly shot URBANIA in Super 16 and
  then digitally edited the film (according to the production notes there
  were 1500 cuts and no splices) before it was blown up to 35mm. The
  resulting images enhanced by the driving score of Marc Anthony Thompson,
  are appropriately haunting and surreal, beautifully mixing the real with the
  imagined.

          URBANIA centers on Charlie (Dan Futterman) who is attempting
  to rebuild his life after a trauma that has left him feeling disjointed and
  ill-at-ease. (Shear and his editors Randolph K. Bricker and Ed Marx
  adeptly craft the visual equivalent of Charlie's messy state of mind.) In
  order to cope with his problem, Charlie haunts the streets of his
  Greenwich Village neighborhood, looking for the ineffable -- perhaps
  human contact, perhaps a story. By intercutting certain urban legends
  like the woman who microwaves her poodle or the man who wakes up
  after a night with a strange woman and discovers he is missing a kidney,
  Shear adds to the hallucinatory tone of the piece. Impatient viewers
  may not fully appreciate what he and his collaborators are doing, as
  the "plot" doesn't really kick in for a while. Although the first third or so
  of the film appears to be meandering and scattershot, there is a method
  in Shear's approach: Charlie's world has been fragmented and he is gradually
  piecing it back together and the film practically reflects his state of mind.
  He spies a roughly handsome young man (Samuel Ball) and Charlie
  becomes obsessed with locating him.

          In his pursuit of this mystery man (about whom the audience slowly
  begins to learn bits and pieces), Charlie encounters several people. At a
  local watering hole appropriately named Karma, he meets a chatty
  bartender (Josh Hamilton) who recounts his own urban legend of an
  encounter with an older woman (Barbara Sukowa). There is also the
  closeted aspiring actor (Gabriel Olds) with whom he shares a less than
  satisfactory encounter. Despite his own pain, Charlie shows compassion
  for a homeless man (Lothaire Bluteau) who lives outside his building, but
  he deliberately teases and cruelly embarrasses a neighbor and his
  girlfriend (Bill Sage and Megan Dodds). This juxtaposition of the angry
  Charlie taking out his hostilities and the more gentle one seen in
  flashbacks is one of the film's more intriguing choices. It makes him
  one of the most complex and believable characters seen on screen in
  a long time.

          As URBANIA shifts time frames, the story behind Charlie's trauma
  eventually begins to emerge. At first there are only brief shots of blood,
  but it eventually becomes clear that Charlie is homosexual and, along
  with his lover Chris (Matt Keeslar), had been the victim of a vicious gay
  bashing. The man he is seeking may hold the key to answering some
  important questions for Charlie and whether he finds them becomes
  the pressing issue.

          In cleverly using his camera and the technology to fashion the
  mindset of Charlie, Shear, a stage actor, makes an assured feature
  directorial debut shows great promise as a filmmaker. He also exhibits
  great control of his cast and elicits fine work from all. Paige Turco is
  excellent as a Wall Street type who enacts the kidney tale and Alan
  Cumming shows up in an incisive cameo as an AIDS-stricken mutual
  friend of Charlie and Chris. Olds, Blutheau, Hamilton and Sukowa all
  create memorable characters. Keeslar has the hardest role as the
  idealized Chris and although he may have been cast more for his
  square-jawed, all-American handsomeness, he does what he can
  to humanize the role.

          The film, however, is a triumph for Dan Futterman, who has
  already demonstrated his capabilities in such diverse fare as
  THE BIRDCAGE (as Robin Williams' son) and the smart S HOOTING FISH
  on screen, Judging Amy on television and in Angels in America on
  Broadway. A compact actor, Futterman uses his expressive features,
  particularly his eyes, to convey Charlie's psychic agony in a palpable
  manner. He is willing to show all sides of this complicated man and he
  does it with great skill and finesse. His performance only further
  elevates this powerful, moving and disquieting motion picture.

                          Rating:                A-
                          MPAA Rating:       R for strong violent and sexual content,
                                                       including related dialogue, and for
                                                       language and some drug use
                          Running time:      100 mins.