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

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+ Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year 

 

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(American Honey (2016)) and co-writer/co-director Josh Safdie (The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008)), based on Holmes' unpublished memoir Mad Love in New York City, and co-directed with co-director/co-editor Benny Safdie.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: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

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.]

 

What do you think of Heaven Knows What?

Good Time (2017) - The Safdies cook up a perfect heist thriller frenzy

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Two male characters run through an out-of-focus, flaring urban night image on this rave-filled poster for the Safdie brothers' Good Time

 

Conny and his mentally disabled brother rob a bank, but although they get away after, they soon find themselves hunted specifically by the police, and punishment is hard to escape.

Good Time is written by co-writer/co-editor Ronald Bronstein (Frownland (2007)) and co-writer/co-director, New-Yorker master filmmaker Josh Safdie (The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008)), who co-directed with his brother, co-star/co-director/co-editor, New-Yorker master filmmaker Benny Safdie (Daddy Longlegs (2009)).

The Safdies achieve a deeply riveting, trippy, continuously authentically striking, eminently done crime drama opus magnum here with a phenomenal Robert Pattinson (Twilight (2008)) performance. Pattinson is wholly believable as our jumpy, deeply callous protagonist. Benny Safdie is just as impressive as his brother; Jennifer Jason Leigh (A Thousand Acres (1997)) is outstanding in a part as a poor wretch, whom Pattinson sponges on. He and the other criminals shown here are alternately knuckleheads, mean dogs and merciless crooks, - but they're also desperate people on the run, criminal renegades.

The photography (by Sean Price Williams (Jobe'z World (2018)) is unmatched, done at conversely street level and with a heli-cam sort of like on an American docu-crime show, and Good Time is underlain with an inciting electro score by Daniel Lopatin (The Bling Ring (2013)).

Among the year's best, Good Time is a wildly born neo-classic; unpredictable, unromantisizing, raw, shocking, funny, strong and enormously entertaining.

 

Pattinson talks about the film on Jimmy Kimmel Live here

 

Cost: 2 - 4.5 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: 3.2 - 4.1 mil. $ (different reports)

= Uncertain (returned 0.71 - 2.05 times its cost, depending on the correct cost and gross)

[Good Time premiered 25 May (Cannes Film Festival) and runs 101 minutes. Shooting took place in February - March 2016 in New York. The film opened #36 to a 125k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 721 theaters, grossing 2 mil. $. The-Numbers.com claims the film earned 4.1 mil. $; the film's cost is reported with a much bigger span. The film won a minor award in Cannes; it was also nominated for 5 Independent Spirit awards, among other honors. The Safdie brothers returned with 2 music videos prior to their theatrical return with Uncut Gems (2019). Pattinson returned in 2 video shorts prior to his theatrical return in Damsel (2018). Good Time is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.60/10 theatrical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Good Time?