Heaven Knows What (2014) - Safdie brothers impress with hard-hitting New York-set homeless addict drama

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An ominous horizontally slanted still of star Arielle Holmes in pink and blue makes up this poster for Benny and Josh Safdie's Heaven Knows What

A young female heroin addict gets pressured to the brink of suicide by her addict boyfriend, but she still maintains her destructive bond with him.

 

Heaven Knows What is written by co-writer/co-editor Ronald Bronstein (Uncut Gems (2019)), co-writer/co-star Arielle Holmes (American Honey (2016)) and co-writer/co-director Josh Safdie (The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008)), based on Holmes' unpublished memoir Mad Love in New York City, and co-directed with co-director/co-editor Benny Safdie. It is the New-Yorker master filmmaker brothers Safdie's 5th feature.

A frighteningly authentic and unadorned portrait of the flat, restricted, deeply inhibited life of big city heroin addicts, Heaven Knows What sensationally uses Holmes and other real homeless and ex-homeless amateur actors successfully in its hard depiction of their lives. The plot, fittingly enough, is also quite flat. Caleb Landry Jones (Twin Peaks (2017, TV-series)) is impressively credible as the egocentric boyfriend Ilya. 

The Safdies (and cinematographer Sean Price Williams (The Sweet East (2023))) have a sure-handed, very New York-flavored, crude aesthetic here that is already well established. The film's strong score (by Paul Grimstad (Stinking Heaven (2015)) and Ariel Pink (TFW NO GF (2020, doc.))) helps us into the addicts' lives. Heaven Knows What is an incredible work.

 

Related post:

 

Benny and Josh Safdie: Good Time (2017) - The Safdies cook up a perfect heist thriller frenzy

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown, projected 100k $

Box office: 84k $

= Uncertain but likely a huge flop (projected return of 0.84 times the cost)

[Heaven Knows What premiered 29 August (Venice Film Festival) and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in New York. The film opened #52 to a 16k $ first weekend in North America, its highest chart position domestically, where it topped out in 14 theaters and grossed 80k $ (95.2 % of the total gross). Its only other registered markets are from the UK and Brazil, although it was also released in France, Germany and Japan, aside from a long list of festival screenings. If made on a tiny 100k $, the film would rank as a huge flop. It additionally made an estimated 186k $ on the North-American home video market alone. It was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards and an AFI award, among other honors. The Safdie brothers returned with Good Time (2017). Holmes returned in 2307: Winter's Dream (2016). Heaven Knows What is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

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