''Fort Tilden'' is a 2014
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
film, written and directed by
Sarah-Violet Bliss and
Charles Rogers, starring
Bridey Elliott
Bridey Elliott (born July 27, 1990) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and film director.
Career
After graduating from the National Theater Institute, Elliott performed stand-up in New York and became a regular at the Upright Citizens Bri ...
, Clare McNulty,
Neil Casey
Neil Casey (born July 28, 1981) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He served as a writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2012 to 2013 and '' Inside Amy Schumer'' in 2014, receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Writi ...
,
Alysia Reiner
Alysia Reiner is an American actress. She is best known for playing Natalie "Fig" Figueroa in the Netflix comedy drama series '' Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as part of the ...
, and
Peter Vack
Peter S. Brown (born September 19, 1986), better known his stage name Peter Vack, is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He is best known for portraying Jason Strider in the MTV comedy series ''I Just Want My Pants Back'' (2011–201 ...
.
The film had its world premiere at
SXSW
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 conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
on March 8, 2014, where it won that year's Grand Jury Award.
The film was acquired by revived
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures (legal name Orion Releasing, LLC) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Amazon through its Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsidiary. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films ...
and was released on August 14, 2015, in a
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
, and through
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 ...
.
Plot
While at a rooftop gathering for their twin musician friends, roommates Allie and Harper meet two guys, Russ and Sam. After the boys announce that they will be spending the day at
Fort Tilden
Fort Tilden, also known as Fort Tilden Historic District, is a former United States Army installation on the coast in the New York City borough of Queens. Fort Tilden now forms part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and is administered ...
the girls make plans to meet them and bring them
molly.
The following day, after realizing that the ferries are closed, the girls decide to bike to
Fort Tilden
Fort Tilden, also known as Fort Tilden Historic District, is a former United States Army installation on the coast in the New York City borough of Queens. Fort Tilden now forms part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and is administered ...
and borrow a bike from their upstairs neighbor, Ebb. They pick up the drugs from Harper's friend Benji, who mocks her for being a dilettante who only pretends to be an artist. While riding through
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
Harper has them stop in front of a cheap clothing store. When Allie realizes that she has not brought a bike lock, Harper urges her to simply wrap the chain around the bikes. While standing in line they watch as a boy steals Allie's bike, but because of their hesitation whether to confront him or not he easily makes off with the bike. Harper urges Allie to leave Ebb's bike behind, which she eventually does, covering it in trash so that it will not be stolen.
The girls call a cab driver who offers to take them to Fort Tilden for a hundred dollars. While in the car Allie grows frustrated because her contact for the
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...
, Cabiria, keeps contacting her in order to obtain her information. Giving up on her Harper makes small talk with the driver, who is from
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
and mentions having been there. However, after Harper mentions what her father does they are thrown out of the car by the cabbie, who tells her her father is a horrible man and a criminal.
The girls walk the rest of the way to Fort Tilden, but upon arrival at the beach discover they are at
Jacob Riis Park
Jacob Riis Park, also called Jacob A. Riis Park and Riis Park, is a seaside park on the southwestern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It lies at the foot of the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Brid ...
. Wandering around they stumble upon three abandoned kittens whom they decide to rescue. While walking Allie receives a text from Cabiria, who asks her how she is enjoying the beach and Allie realizes that Harper posted a picture of her in her bathing suit on Instagram. Frustrated, the girls abandon the kittens in a trash can, reasoning that they left them better than they found them.
As they continue to look for Fort Tilden they receive a text from the boys that they are at Jacob Riis. The girls finally return there and on their way finally pass Fort Tilden. Upon arrival at Jacob Riis they see the boys are with two girls who are topless. Reluctantly, Harper and Allie take their tops off too. Despite the fact that the sun is going down Harper pulls Russ into the water where she tries to have sex with him. Meanwhile, Allie discovers through conversation that the girls, Russ and Sam are all in high school. As the four high school friends leave Sam invites Allie to his mom's house. Allie instead goes to Harper in the water and tells her the kids are in high school.
Afterwards Allie and Harper call a cab and go back to their apartment in Williamsburg. On the way Harper calls 911 and tells the operator about the kittens in the trash can. He tells her to take them out as it is about to rain and they will drown. She hangs up on him.
At home Allie goes to see Ebb and tells him she abandoned his bike, is unwilling to get it, and will probably not be going into the Peace Corps after all. Returning to her apartment she sees Harper having a conversation with her father where she tells him she misses him and asks him how he figured out life at her age. After the conversation ends the two girls curl up with toast and listen to the latest song from their twin musician friends.
Cast
*
Bridey Elliott
Bridey Elliott (born July 27, 1990) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and film director.
Career
After graduating from the National Theater Institute, Elliott performed stand-up in New York and became a regular at the Upright Citizens Bri ...
as Harper
* Clare McNulty as Allie
*
Neil Casey
Neil Casey (born July 28, 1981) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He served as a writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2012 to 2013 and '' Inside Amy Schumer'' in 2014, receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Writi ...
as Ebb
*
Alysia Reiner
Alysia Reiner is an American actress. She is best known for playing Natalie "Fig" Figueroa in the Netflix comedy drama series '' Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as part of the ...
as Cobble Hill Mom
*
Reggie Watts
Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts (born March 23, 1972) is an American comedian, actor, beatboxer, and musician. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. Watts refers to himself as a "disinf ...
as himself
*
Peter Vack
Peter S. Brown (born September 19, 1986), better known his stage name Peter Vack, is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He is best known for portraying Jason Strider in the MTV comedy series ''I Just Want My Pants Back'' (2011–201 ...
as Benji
*
Griffin Newman
Griffin Newman (born February 19, 1989) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for starring as Arthur Everest in the Amazon Studios television series ''The Tick'', as the voice of Orko in the Netflix animated series '' Masters of the Uni ...
as Sam
Release
Once the film had completed production, a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
campaign was launched in order to help the film find a proper film festival launch to find distribution and complete
post-production
Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments.
The ...
. The film had its world premiere at the
SXSW
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 conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
film festival on March 8, 2014.
The film was acquired by
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures (legal name Orion Releasing, LLC) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Amazon through its Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsidiary. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films ...
and was released on August 14, 2015, in a
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
, and through
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 ...
.
Reception
On review aggregate website
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 ...
, ''Fort Tilden'' has an approval rating of 88% based on 34 reviews.
The site's critics consensus reads, "Difficult to watch but ultimately all the more rewarding for it, ''Fort Tilden'' offers an intriguing calling card for writer-directors Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers."
On
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 ...
, the film has a score of 70 based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."
The film received generally positive reviews from major critics. Andy Webster of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said that "rarely has a movie so humorously illustrated the meaning of 'frenemy'", David Edelstein of ''
New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...
'' called Fort Tilden "a brisk comedy packed with sharply drawn characters", and Katie Walsh of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' said that the film "has an easy, funky groove and captures the sweaty perfection of a New York City summer, where things always look better on Instagram".
References
External links
*
* {{IMDb title, 3457734
Orion Pictures films
2014 comedy films
American independent films
Kickstarter-funded films
2010s female buddy films
American comedy films
2014 independent films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films