Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Writer/director: Alistair Banks Griffin, Umbrella Entertainment.
This psychological drama, set in the South Bronx in the sweltering summer of 1977, centres on June Leigh (Naomi Watts, King Kong), an agoraphobic writer who is now a self-banished recluse.
Tormented by trauma that’s linked to her celebrated debut, June sits on the window sill, paces and chain-smokes, all the while her distress is palpable. She is unsuccessful with writing. Heat permeates through her South Bronx apartment.
A decade ago she was a known counter-culture figure. Now she lives alone, having all but cut herself off from the outside world. It’s the notorious ‘Summer of Sam’ and June only has to look out of her window to see the violence escalating with the brutal summer heat. The city is on a knife’s edge, a pressure-cooker about to explode into the incendiary 1977 New York blackout riots.
Her seclusion is almost complete, except for a crackling intercom when she answers it for unwelcome visit from old friend Margot (Jennifer Ehle), who literally breathes fresh air into her life, only to be shut out again. As well, there’s some bonding with delivery boy Freddie (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and fighting off the advances of a cop (Jeremy Bobb).
Fortunately, there’s a realistic sense of time and place injected into this mainly indoor setting by Kaet McAnneny’s production design. Griffin displays credibility with the backdrop of the chaotic and violent and chaotic strikes of the historical occurrence, with the right gritty texture captured by Khalid Mohtaseb’s cinematography.
The Wolf Hour touches on eruptive ideas of urban isolation, racism, sexism, delusion and guilt, but doesn’t further delve into them. Watts delivers a troubled, though committed, mostly one-woman performance as a once-celebrated feminist writer now restricted in her dead grandmother’s apartment by paranoia and the demons unleashed by her earlier success.
Name the location of June Leigh’s apartment. If your answer is correct, then you could win one of two DVDs of The Wolf Hour. Entries should be sent to [email protected] by Monday, 12 October 2020. Names of the winners will be announced in Frank Cassidy’s PS-sssst…! column on 13 October 2020.
