The current pandemic and its’ associate effects take us back to an earlier time of paranoia in the American consciousness in the new drama DARKNESS IN TENEMENT 45.
A biological threat during the Cold War paralyses New York City – and for the tenants in one particular building, itineraries and a determination to survive are starting to bite.
For a teenage girl, Joanna (Nicole Tompkins) , who has lost her mother and is under the case in the same building with her adopted aunt Martha (Casey Kramer) , the conflict between losing her mother and having to deal with an overbearing figurehead who seemingly rules the roost is more than enough in a world where things are not going the way that they should.
The other tenants, amongst them a black brother and sister in foster care, are also beginning to feel the effects of containment – and Joanna’s vision of a yellow balloon flying past the window at one point taps into the overall feeling of desperation as the supplies begin to dwindle, starting to create additional conflicts and a desire to escape.
One of the other tenants, a young boy called Tomas (Nicolas Aleksandr Bolton) is also contending with the effects of impending puberty, relying on vintage magazines of 1950s cover girls and a closet where he tries to live out his fantasies amidst the other issues that everyone faces and feels that the food of love is more important than the food of life which everyone else needs….
With echoes of 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, with a perception of what is out there tapping into people’s mindsets, DARKNESS IN TENEMENT 45 is an effective claustrophobic and tightly-performed piece, although given that a lot of films these days are trying to create a feeling about the effects of the pandemic, the film might just be causing the same kind of lock-down fatigue that is making people just want to go out and do stuff and desiring that we just carry on as much as possible in this ‘New Normal’.
Production design and sound is excellent, with a real sense of restraint of building up the tension, until it yields very bloody and violent moments as the film progresses.
If there is one criticism, it is that the film might be buried amongst other similarly minded films like the aforementioned 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE and film-makers at present seem to find a means of expression through limitation caused by COVID-19. However, let’s just sit it all out – and hope that we will be getting more escapist and upbeat films that will fulfil a much more desirable need for audiences in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future.
