Medicine for Melancholy (DVD)
APPROX. 88 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 2008 - MPA RATING: NR
" A film of long silences punctuated by soft spoken verbal duels
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"So what do two black folks do on a Sunday afternoon?"
That´s either a set up for a tasteless joke, or a potential tag line for writer/director Barry Jenkins´ low-key debut feature "Medicine for Melancholy."
The film begins in the awkward silence that follows an alcohol-assisted one night stand. Waking up at a mutual friend´s house, Micah (Wyatt Cenac) and Jo´ (Tracey Heggins) clean up, dress and sneak out of the house, together only because they´re heading in the same direction. Micah wants to get to know Jo´. She has no interest. They part ways, but a dogged and persuasive Micah won´t let it end there. He tracks her down and convinces her to join for a day out in the city of San Francisco.
For Micah, race is a prominent issue in any discussion. He bluntly asks Jo´ whether her boyfriend is white. "Does it matter?" she asks. "Yes and no," he replies. But mostly yes. And yes, he is.
Jo´s suggestion that they go to MOMA prompts disdain from Micah and leads Jo´ to ask the question at the top of this review. Micah´s smart-ass reply: "Go to Church. Eat fried chicken." It´s hard to tell whether it´s a spontaneously smug response, or part of a strategy designed to put Jo´ on the defensive. It works and she lets Micah take the lead on what for her, at least in a small way, is an exploration of black identity. Micah takes her to the Museum of African Diaspora ("MoAD, sister, not MOMA.") which seems to be a completely new experience for her despite the fact she´s been plugged into the city´s art scene for years, a plot conceit that is a bit hard to swallow.
"Medicine for Melancholy" is a film of long silences punctuated by soft spoken verbal duels which partly about racial identity but mostly about two people trying to get know each other and decide if the one-night stand that has turned into a one-day journey should lead anywhere else. Cenac, better know from his role as a "Daily Show" correspondent, has serious game, a snappy patter that enables him to keep Jo´ both entertained and irritated enough to maintain her interest. Higgins doesn´t get to do quite as much, settling for a bemused detachment that allows Cenac room to play.
