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''Before I Disappear'' is a 2014 American drama film directed by
Shawn Christensen Shawn Christensen is an American musician, filmmaker, podcaster and artist. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration and graphic design. Christensen was the frontman of the indie rock band Ste ...
. The film is a feature-length adaptation of his 2012 Oscar-winning short film, ''
Curfew A curfew is a government order specifying a time during which certain regulations apply. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to ''not'' be in public places or on roads within a certain time frame, typically in the evening and ...
''. The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest Film on March 10, 2014. The film was acquired for distribution by
IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...
on August 5, 2014 and released on November 28, 2014.


Plot

In
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, Richie (
Shawn Christensen Shawn Christensen is an American musician, filmmaker, podcaster and artist. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration and graphic design. Christensen was the frontman of the indie rock band Ste ...
), a downtrodden young man whose girlfriend, Vista (Isabelle McNally), recently disappeared, discovers the corpse of a girl who died from a heroin overdose while he is cleaning bathroom stalls at a nightclub. The club owner, Bill (
Ron Perlman Ronald Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in the television series ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1987–199 ...
), arranges for her body to be removed without notifying the authorities. At his apartment, Richie attempts suicide by cutting one of his wrists in a bathtub, when he receives a call from his estranged sister, Maggie (
Emmy Rossum Emmanuelle Grey Rossum (born September 12, 1986) is an American actress, director, and singer. She is known for her portrayal of List of Shameless (American TV series) characters#Fiona Gallagher, Fiona Gallagher in the television series ''Shame ...
), asking him to look after her eleven-year-old daughter, Sophia (
Fátima Ptacek Fátima Ptacek (; born August 20, 2000) is an American film and television actress and model, and a human rights activist working with UN Women's #HeForShe campaign for gender equality. She is best known as the lead actor in the 2012 Academy A ...
). Richie goes to her school, where she recites "
Because I could not stop for Death "Because I could not stop for Death" is a lyrical poem by Emily Dickinson first published posthumously in ''Poems: Series 1'' in 1890. Dickinson's work was never authorized to be published, so it is unknown whether "Because I could not stop for ...
" by
Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massach ...
in both English and
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
. Richie takes her to her apartment before heading home, where he attempts suicide by drug overdose. Richie hallucinates a drug dealer calling him on the phone, threatening him by saying he is in the building. Sophia calls, however, and informs Richie that her mother has not returned home. Richie arrives at the lobby of Maggie's apartment, where he discovers that the drugs he took were Zolafren, intended for
menopause Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time in women's lives when menstrual periods stop permanently, and they are no longer able to bear children. Menopause usually occurs between the age of 47 and 54. Medical professionals often d ...
. Outside Maggie's apartment, a suspicious-looking woman asks Richie about his sister's whereabouts. After entering, Maggie calls the apartment, indicating to Richie that she is in central booking and upon hearing of the woman, orders Richie to sneak Sophia out of the building. Richie takes Sophia to a bowling alley where he works. Richie calls central booking, who inform him that his sister was arrested and is awaiting arraignment at 4:30 AM. The owner of the bowling alley, Gideon (
Paul Wesley Paweł Tomasz Wasilewski (; July 23, 1982), known professionally as Paul Wesley, is an American actor, director and producer. He is known for starring as Stefan Salvatore on the supernatural drama series ''The Vampire Diaries'' (2009–2017) as ...
), has Richie brought to the office. Gideon informs him that his girlfriend has been missing for a day, with her last whereabouts being at Bill's nightclub, and produces a photograph, which Richie recognizes as being of the dead woman he saw the night before. Richie denies knowledge of her whereabouts. He calls Bill, who tells him to come in at 1:30 AM to discuss the situation. As a favor to Richie, Gideon allows Maggie the use of his lawyer, Bruce Warham (
Richard Schiff Richard Schiff (born May 27, 1955) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on ''The West Wing'', a role for which he received an Emmy Award. Schiff made his directorial debut with ''The West Wing'', directing ...
), who informs Maggie that in the public's eyes, she is a mistress, due to her having sexual relations to a married man, despite having been assaulted. Richie tells Sophia about flip books he made growing up about a character called "Sophia". He brings Sophia to his former apartment in a downtrodden part of town, where he retrieves some flip books and calms his panicked niece by presenting the premise of a girl who dies in intricate ways, but comes back by the next installment. He then collapses from blood loss, but refuses to go to a hospital, due to promising Maggie to keep Sophia safe. After Sophia tells him the cruel things her estranged father, Darren (
Fran Kranz Francis Elliott Kranz (born July 13, 1981) is an American actor and film director. He is known for his portrayal of Topher Brink in the science fiction drama series ''Dollhouse''. He had prominent roles in the films ''The Cabin in the Woods'' an ...
), says to her, Richie assaults him at his work. Richie and Sophia visit Bill, who divulges that Gideon's girlfriend had been resisting his advances and in retaliation, he gave her heroin. Richie returns to Maggie's apartment, where he returns Sophia home. Sophia tells him that his constant love letters to Vista would work if he told her he loves her. Having reached an epiphany, Richie confronts Gideon, telling him what happened to his girlfriend. Gideon and his armed thugs abduct Richie, then drop him off alongside the road, before speeding off to deal with Bill. Richie re-encounters the blonde woman, who is revealed to be the wife of Maggie's lover. Richie makes his rendezvous with a released Maggie and escorts her to her apartment. Maggie tells Richie that she does not want him to stay in her daughter's life, fearing him to be a "false idol". Richie tells her how much he looked up to her when they were younger and how much he still looks up to her now. He returns to his bathtub and prepares to kill himself, when Maggie calls him, inviting him over for dinner. Richie writes a much shorter letter to Vista, stating that he loves and misses her, before looking up and seeing an image of her sitting across from him.


Cast

*
Shawn Christensen Shawn Christensen is an American musician, filmmaker, podcaster and artist. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration and graphic design. Christensen was the frontman of the indie rock band Ste ...
as Richie *
Fátima Ptacek Fátima Ptacek (; born August 20, 2000) is an American film and television actress and model, and a human rights activist working with UN Women's #HeForShe campaign for gender equality. She is best known as the lead actor in the 2012 Academy A ...
as Sophia *
Emmy Rossum Emmanuelle Grey Rossum (born September 12, 1986) is an American actress, director, and singer. She is known for her portrayal of List of Shameless (American TV series) characters#Fiona Gallagher, Fiona Gallagher in the television series ''Shame ...
as Maggie *
Paul Wesley Paweł Tomasz Wasilewski (; July 23, 1982), known professionally as Paul Wesley, is an American actor, director and producer. He is known for starring as Stefan Salvatore on the supernatural drama series ''The Vampire Diaries'' (2009–2017) as ...
as Gideon *
Ron Perlman Ronald Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in the television series ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1987–199 ...
as Bill *
Richard Schiff Richard Schiff (born May 27, 1955) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on ''The West Wing'', a role for which he received an Emmy Award. Schiff made his directorial debut with ''The West Wing'', directing ...
as Bruce *
Joseph Perrino Joseph Perrino (born April 30, 1982) is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the drama film ''Sleepers'' in 1996. Life and career Joseph Perrino is an American film, television and stage actor, best known for his roles in the fe ...
as Ellis *
Fran Kranz Francis Elliott Kranz (born July 13, 1981) is an American actor and film director. He is known for his portrayal of Topher Brink in the science fiction drama series ''Dollhouse''. He had prominent roles in the films ''The Cabin in the Woods'' an ...
as Darren * Isabelle McNally as Vista * Joseph DeVito as The Collector


Release

''Before I Disappear'' had its worldwide premiere at
South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
(SXSW) on March 11, 2014, where it won the Audience Award and was nominated for the Grand Jury Award. Following SXSW, the film was shown at a handful of festivals, including the 71st Venice International Film Festival, where it was the only American film that was selected for the Venice Days program.
IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...
was announced to have acquired the American distribution rights to ''Before I Disappear'' on August 5, 2014. IFC gave the film a limited theatrical release on November 28, 2014.


Home media

Simultaneous with the home media distribution of ''Before I Disappear'', IFC released the film on November 28, 2014 on
video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
via
Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
and
iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
. The film was released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
and
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
on May 19, 2015.


Reception


Box office

The film opened on November 28, 2014 in one theater and on select VOD platforms. As of August 2016, it earned $10,078 from five screens.


Critical response

The film won the
South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
Audience Award and was in competition at the
Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
. On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
it holds a 37% approval rating based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10.
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gives the film a rating of 47/100 based on 13 critic reviews.
Moviefone Moviefone is an American-based moving pictures listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, cinema information, film reviews, and advance tickets, as well as TV content and a comprehensive search tool that allows users ...
called it "visually daring, nearly wondrous, and might be the best late night New York movie since Martin Scorsese's After Hours. Justin Chang of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it "visually well mounted, but too overwrought to really convince or resonate". Eric Kohn of
Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
rated it B− and wrote that the film "contains all the strong moments that distinguished ''Curfew'' while surrounding them with a lot of superfluous additions". Mark Adams of ''
Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...
'' described it as "a stylish and beautifully shot adaptation, strong on performance and a nicely nuanced script, but in the end perhaps lacking an expanded story to suit its feature length." David Rooney of ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' wrote a negative review, in which he criticized the writing and flow of the film as being sporadic, but gave credit to the performances of the actors.


Accolades


References


External links


''Before I Disappear''
at
IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...
* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Before I Disappear 2014 films 2014 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films Features based on short films Films about children Films about death Films set in Manhattan Films shot in New York (state) 2014 directorial debut films Films about siblings Films about drugs 2010s English-language films Films directed by Shawn Christensen 2010s American films