10.12.2009

Sundance. "Don't Let Me Drown"

"Cruz Angeles's 'Don't Let Me Drown' is that kind of New York debut feature that holds lots of promise for all those involved," writes Anthony Kaufman. "With this urban Brooklyn tale of teen love and familty strife, comparisons to 'Raising Victor Vargas' and 'Manito' are inevitable. Surprisingly conventional, both in its style of shooting and in its narrative arc - boy gazes at girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy... you might guess how it ends. But Angeles's genuine care for his characters and fine attention to the cultural conflicts between Mexicans and [Dominicans] raises the film above the norm."

"I'd be lying if my heart didn't race from the sheer joy of discovery as I watched it," writes Bilge Ebiri at Screengrab. "Every exchange brings with it a small moment of surprise - an unexpected line of dialogue, an unforeseen narrative development, or maybe just a glance - that the film, for all the indie portent of its plot, feels like the freshest thing in years."

"[W]hat makes 'Don't Let Me Drown' extraordinary - aside from the way Angeles recreates the look of immediate-post-9/11 New York on an indie budget - is how intimate and lived-in everything looks and feels," writes Noel Murray at the AV Club. "As a storyteller, Angeles has some room to grow, but as a scene-setter, he's already at the top of his class."

"Newcomers EJ Bonilla and Gleendilys Inoa are charismatic and engaging as Lalo and Stefanie," writes Steve Ramos at indieWIRE. "While its performances play a significant role, 'Don't Let Me Drown' stands out as a director's piece, a movie that thrives on the artful skills of its Brooklyn-based filmmaker."

For the Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt, this is "one of the best film portraits yet of New York City in the aftermath of 9/11, where a city and its people cope with collective post-traumatic stress while military jets boom overhead and smoke from the Twin Towers hangs in the air.... The film is fast-paced but finds more than enough time to explore the family dynamics, its personalities and struggles in a tough environment.... Sundance has again given us new talent to watch."

"I loved it," exudes FirstShowing's Alex Billington

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