A dinner party turns into a struggle for survival in experimental COHERENCE
COHERENCE (James Ward Byrkit, 2014)
Village East Cinemas
181-189 Second Ave. at 12th St.
Opens Friday, June 20
212-529-6799
www.coherencethemovie.com
www.villageeastcinema.com
A dinner party enters The Twilight Zone as a comet approaches and inexplicable things start happening in James Ward Byrkit’s inventive directorial debut, Coherence. Inspired by Ray Bradbury’s “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” Christopher Nolan’s Inception, and other sci-fi classics (and reminiscent of Todd Berger’s 2012 underappreciated It’s a Disaster!), Byrkit’s has created an intriguing experimental film about love and life, relationships and survival, shot in five nights in his own living room with no script. When the power goes out in every house but one in the neighborhood, Hugh (Hugo Armstrong) and Amir (story conceiver Alex Manugian) go to investigate, but when they return, it’s hard for everyone else to believe what they claim to have seen, especially when they open the box that they found. Soon everyone is questioning what is real and what is not as their very existence is held up to theoretical existential mirrors and their discussion turns to Schrödinger’s cat, quantum decoherence, and other complex ideas. The story does get convoluted at times but never gets completely incoherent as Hugo, Amir, Em (Emily Foxler), Kevin (Maury Sterling), Laurie (Lauren Maher), Lee (Lorene Scafaria), Mike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Nicholas Brendon, whose character claims to have starred on Roswell), and Beth (Elizabeth Gracen) try to figure out just what the hell is going on. One of the reasons why the film works is that the actors know only so much more than the audience. Coherence is mostly improvised; each actor occasionally received a notecard from Byrkit (who cowrote, storyboarded, and provided multiple voices in Gore Verbinski’s Rango) advising them of a specific line to say or general theme to explore but leaving most of the details up to them. Thus, the actors didn’t know where the narrative would lead either, which allowed them to express genuine shock or surprise at the numerous plot twists. It’s a unique conceit that adds to the fun, but it takes expert editing by Lance Pereira and handheld shooting by Nic Sadler and Arlene Muller to keep it all together. Coherence is a gripping puzzle that will have you thinking twice the next time a comet approaches — and the next time you’re invited to a dinner party with friends.
For his third stage adaptation in ten years, following 1994’s Death and the Maiden and 2011’s Carnage, Roman Polanski has created a marvelous, multilayered examination of the intricate nature of storytelling, consumed with aspects of doubling. David Ives’s Tony-nominated play, 
Alexander Mackendrick’s splendid 1951 Ealing comedy The Man in the White Suit is a hysterical Marxist fantasy about corporations, unions, and the working man that doesn’t feel dated in the least. Alec Guinness stars as Sidney Stratton, a brilliant scientist relegated to lower-class jobs at textile mills while he works feverishly on a secret product that he believes will revolutionize the industry — and the world. After being fired by Michael Corland (Michael Gough) at one factory, Sid goes over to Birnley’s, run by Alan Birnley (Cecil Parker, whose voiceover narration begins and ends the film). As Sid develops his groundbreaking product, he also develops a liking for Birnley’s daughter, Daphne (Joan Greenwood), who is preparing to marry Corland. Meanwhile, tough-talking union leader Bertha (Vida Hope) also takes a shine to the absentminded chemist, who soon finds himself on the run, chased by just about everyone he’s ever met, not understanding why they all are so against him. Guinness is at his goofy best as Sid, a loner obsessed with the challenge he has set for himself; his makeshift, Rube Goldberg-like chemistry sets are a riot, bubbling over with silly noises like they’re in a cartoon. But at the heart of the film lies some fascinating insight on the nature of big business that is still relevant today. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay, The Man in the White Suit is an extremely witty film, expertly directed (and cowritten) by Mackendrick, who would go on to make such other great pictures as The Ladykillers and Sweet Smell of Success. It’s easy to imagine that if someone in a textile mill today came up with a similar invention as Stratton’s, the same arguments against it would arise, suppressing progress in favor of personal interest and preservation. The Man in the White Suit is being shown June 20-21 at Film Forum in a double feature with Charles Crichton’s delightful heist comedy The Lavender Hill Mob — both in 35mm restorations — as part of “Alec Guinness 100,” celebrating Sir Alec’s centennial with screenings of more than two dozen of his films, including The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Ladykillers, Our Man in Havana, Lawrence of Arabia, The Scapegoat, The Prisoner, and the 1997 Special Edition of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
