After penning the scripts for films like Todd Haynes’ prismic Bob Dylan drama “I’m Not Here” and the criminally underrated drug addiction drama “Jesus’ Son,” Oren Moverman assumed his place in the director’s chair. He’s helmed three terrific indies so far, including “The Messenger” which led Woody Harrelson to a kind of career comeback and a supporting Oscar nomination, and his cop drama, “Rampart,” also staring Harrelson, and has continued screenwriting, including this week’s Beach Boys/Brian Wilson drama “Love & Mercy.” For his latest effort “Time Out Of Mind,” which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, Moverman examines the homeless and those on the fringes of society. Here’s the official synopsis:
George is a desperate man. With faltering health and nowhere to turn, he finds himself thrust onto New York City’s unforgiving streets. After exhausting all other avenues of temporary housing, he seeks refuge at Bellevue Hospital, Manhattan’s largest intake center for homeless men. It too proves a harsh and difficult-to-navigate environment, crowded as it is with similarly marginalized souls. But when George befriends a seasoned shelter-dweller named Dixon, he begins to harbor hope of repairing his relationship with his estranged daughter.
Starring Richard Gere in a tour de force performance as the homeless man in question, Jena Malone as his estranged daughter, and supporting turns from Ben Vereen, Mimi Rogers and Kyra Sedgwick, “Time Out Of Mind” (the title is borrowed from a Bob Dylan song) is powerful humanist exploration. Our reviewer from TIFF wrote, “ ’Time Out Of Mind’ is a film of tremendous patience and pace, as it wants you to inhabit every minute, day, hour and year of homelessness. But it’s through that considered approach that the reveal of [Gere’s character’s] deep self-hatred and low self-esteem carries an extraordinary power; time has worn his sense of self to the point of despair that’s deeply moving. ”
We’re sold. “Time Out Of Mind” hits theaters on September 11th via IFC Films. Watch the trailer below.
Just a minor correction, Time Out Of Mind is a Dylan album not a song.