HipBeat
90 Minutes, Not Rated
Written and Directed by Samuel Kay Forrest
Synopsis:
A young man searching for his identity goes on a journey from anarchy to embracing love in the Berlin LGBTQ+ community.
“Based on a true story.”
Those are words I’ve come to regret seeing associated with movies, but they’re included here, so now you know, too.
The true story in HipBeat would seem to be that of writer/director/star Samuel Kay Forrest.
What we get is a disjointed, overly long (even at only 90 minutes), languishing look at Berlin, as our protagonist, Angus (played by Forrest), tries to find his authentic self, whether that is gay, straight, bi, trans, polyamorous, or just plain bored.
Often presented in a pseudo-documentary style, the film can’t even maintain that illusion for long, rolling into dramatically framed shots of distant gazes into eternity, or worse: nothing at all, while Angus provides expository narration in a tone that makes Harrison Ford’s Blade Runner voice-over work sound Oscar-worthy.
Angus lives in a woe-is-me world, unable to advance, unwilling to withdraw, until he is finally cornered into exposure when his girlfriend discovers him in a situation not easily explainable.
Spiraling further, Angus finally does seem to land on his feet and embrace the totality of his being, but again, the composition of shots and the structure of the film seem to be conceived around the idea that if it looks profound it must be profound.
HipBeat is–at best–a moving, yet obscure, arthouse picture; at worst, it’s a pretentious, preening, wanna-be arthouse picture.
The overtly-political nature of the film (European anti “far-right” movement) is sure to turn off a huge portion of whatever audience the film might otherwise have garnered for itself, but even that position is more often than not pushed to the side in favor of the aforementioned voice-overs, during which Angus bemoans the evils of those who do not agree with him.
What might have been shown to us with actual footage or recreations of protests is shrunk to a few signs and shots of graffiti, or preached in monotone narration. In the end, it is the idea of substance instead of substance itself that Forrest gives us.
HipBeat will premiere at the Arena Cinelounge, Hollywood, from Mother Earth Films, FC Films, and Castle Matrix Productions.
HipBeat features Samuel Kay Forrest, Marie Céline Yildirim, Judy LaDivina, Helmut Wößner, Filip Süt Rutkowski, and Andriana Manfredi.
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