“A fine, stark, totally
uncompromised drama.”
Matt Zoller Seitz, NYPress
“...a stunning array of drama and performances worthy of Eugene
O'Neill. -With sobering patience and insight, Wizemann's
story examines the lives of characters rendered complex and all too human.”
Fernando F. Croce, Cinequest
“...the downbeat ensemble drama impresses with its gritty realism,
low-key dramatic focus and honed performances. ...Mercifully, script refrains
from spelling out the pathos already quite evident in the setting and the
characters' faces. A few terse back stories emerge but, more often, dialogue
is credibly focused on strained pleasantries, leaving tragedy easy to read.
Performers, all retained from the original stage production, are uniformly
excellent. Their absorbing turns and discreet direction keep the bleak
tale from growing too uneventful or monotonous.”
Dennis Harvey, Variety
“Losing
Ground makes its greatest connection in knowing
us just as much as we know these characters. It is fascinating filmmaking
that gets to the core of humanity, scrapes out even the most bottommost
parts of it, and holds it up to examine it.”
Rory L. Aronsky, FILM THREAT
“You think you already know its handful of losers in a place where
time and life itself seems to have stopped. And maybe you do. But they get
to you anyway in their unitalicized, cumulative way. Both mood piece and
ensemble piece, the film is a sad exhalation of life -- or what passes for
it -- among the rudderless…in measured, note-perfect performances.”
Jay Carr, AM New York
“–An arresting independent film about the human propensity
for addiction. Losing Ground isn't a melodramatic anti-gambling screed.
The film viscerally evokes the atmosphere of a circle of hell populated
by people desperately willing themselves into blindness.”
M. Faust, ArtVoice
“Numerous narrative strands mysteriously and gracefully intertwine,
trapping these compulsive, desperate characters in their tangled web. Losing
Ground, with its muted but potently charged minimalism, has much to convey
about the ways in which the economic and emotional uncertainties of a greed
culture steeped in narcissistic myth and fantasy, cripple people's lives
emotionally.”
Prairie Miller, WBAI Arts Magazine
“Losing Ground, like its characters, is in no hurry to artificially define
where its headed. –There’s not a bad performance in the lot, each
fulfilling a sadness and a greater sense of danger that comes with satisfying
their craving. Cinematographer Mark Schwartzbard confines the shadows like
a trap to which these people and the audience have no escape.”
Erik Childress, eFilmCritic.com
“…dialogue with a realistic sense of desperation…his
characters seem trapped under microscope slides on the screen. What makes Losing Ground compelling is how Wizemann subtly
transcends the clichés of the addiction film. It leads us down a familiar
path, but its power is in the journey, not the destination. It is well worth
seeing if given the chance.”
Odie Henderson, Cinemaniac's Corner
Adapted from the critically acclaimed New York stage play, Losing Ground unfolds in real-time over a single night in a Las Vegas video-poker bar where seven people come in, interact, strike up friendships of convenience, win, lose, and go home.
Bryan Wizemann's haunting and elegiac feature film debut is a contemporary portrait of ritual and superstition, intimacy and estrangement. In direct contrast with the current zeitgeist of a Las Vegas myth, Losing Ground is a personal and closely observed work on the addictions of human nature. You can watch the film's trailer above.
| Principal Crew Written & Directed by Bryan Wizemann Director of Photography Mark Schwartzbard Editor Brad Studstrup Producer Julian Coutts Production Designer Gaylia Wagner First Camera Operator George Lyon Guest Camera Operator John Schwartz |
Cast Michelle Eileen O'Connell Kieran Kendall Pigg James Matthew Mark Meyer Marty Monique Vukovic Reagan Rhonda Keyser Turner John Good Paul Colm Byrne |
