SEVEN O’CLOCK

Year Released: 2001 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 5 minutes Click to Expand Credits: Starring Justin Funari Produced, written and directed by Justin Funari

It’s seven o’clock, and someone has decided to kill himself.
This is one of the first films ever done by Justin “J.D.” Funari, a grass-roots guerilla filmmaker from Albany, New York. Not a bad effort for a first shot, but filled with many “gives” that show it is a first attempt: overly introspective, lack of actual story, starring himself only.
As a learning piece, it is valuable, and rather impressive if it is one of the first things he ever did. (Believe me, the first thing I ever shot and edited is excruciating to watch.)
The film itself is a suicide note set to the music of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son.” The Beethoven is a little melodramatic and the piece would have been better with just Cat Stevens (although the message behind Moonlight Sonata is a little more appropriate for the brooding message of the film).
From a cinematic and artistic standpoint, there is some interesting work with camera angles and the look of some imagery. Cut together with a directed randomness reminiscent of an art-house favorite you might see at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, “Seven O’clock” paints the picture of the main character’s pain rather than show it to you in a traditional story.
However, “Seven O’clock” fails to be a true experimental piece as well. With too much experimentation to be a narrative and too much narrative to be an experimental film, “Seven O’clock” comes and goes without much to remember it by.

Posted on December 9, 2003 in Reviews by Kevin Carr

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