Five Nights in Maine (2015)

Five Nights in Maine: Directed by Maris Curran. With David Oyelowo, Hani Furstenberg, Neal Lerner, Teyonah Parris. A young African American man, reeling from the tragic loss of his wife, travels to rural Maine to seek answers from his estranged mother-in-law, who is herself confronting guilt and grief over her daughter’s death.

“The directoru0026#39;s use of merciless close-ups and hand-held camera actually very soon began to hurt my eyes, turning me off about whatever was happening on screen. We are given about thirty seconds to get to know the soon deceased wife, and so we have little connection with her. The husband is a blank pager as well: other than the fact that he is black (the deceased was white) we know nothing about him. Now I could have been patient and allowed the movie to tell me more about these people, but not through those shaky close-ups. Off it went!”