Review: Home Video
Heaven Knows What | Benny and Josh Safdie | USA | 2015 | 94 min
Coming to DVD and Blu-Ray in September»
UW Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall, Friday, November 20, 7:00pm»
The latest feature from Benny and Josh Safdie examines a community of drug addicts and other marginalized people. Heaven Knows What benefits greatly from the long-term relationships that the Safdies have built with their non-professional cast, including writer and lead actress Areille Holmes.
Editor’s Note: UW Cinematheque has announced their schedule for Fall 2015, and Heaven Knows What will be featured in their Premiere Showcase series. Be sure to check out the entire schedule at cinema.wisc.edu.
Making films about drug addicted, marginalized people can easily delve into some exploitative territory particularly if the filmmakers are not part of that community. Heaven Knows What, the latest film from Benny and Josh Safdie (Daddy Longlegs, The Pleasure of Being Robbed) stays committed to social realism without exploiting the characters in the film. While several films serve as a cautionary tale about drug use (Requiem for a Dream, Trainspotting, Panic in Needle Park), few go beyond showing the effects of the drug on the users themselves. Heaven Knows What doesn’t show the viewer what it’s like to be high. Instead we see the physical effects of what happens, the loss of time and space and so much more.
Arielle Holmes draws from her own experience as a homeless heroin addict in her role as Harley. Josh Safdie discovered Holmes while researching a different film in the Diamond District of New York City. He asked her to write her life story, which she did by going in to several Apple stores. Josh and his writing partner, Ronald Bronstein, adapted a screenplay from her 150-page manuscript, “Mad Love in New York City.” Many characters in the film play themselves as people struggling with addiction and trying to maintain while on the streets. Josh Safdie spent months with some of the actors before filming and formed close relationships with them. The camaraderie between the members of this community is very apparent as they share what they can and support one another. The Safdies convey the tenderness within this group, but addiction transcends everything and those bonds can just as easily be broken.
Harley spends her days with her boyfriend Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones), crawling through the streets, making out and trying to score heroin. Ilya becomes displeased with her and Harley desperately tries to make amends. She goes through the ultimate gesture that a person could possibly give to demonstrate their sorrow and finds herself in a facility for treatment. This initial scene is gut-wrenching; there is no dialogue and the credits roll in as Isao Tomita’s score plays in the background. The Safdies have set the pace and tone for things to come and the viewers are in for a visceral experience.
The relationship between Ilya and Harley doesn’t take center stage as much as Harley’s relationship to heroin. An addict may love a person, but his or her love of drugs is first and foremost. Ilya’s dismissiveness when Harley tries to appeal to him immediately makes him unlikeable. But Harley becomes equally unlikeable as she makes more and more terrible decisions about her life that make it hard to empathize with her. Members of this community can have each other’s backs one moment, and then fight and literally tear each other a part in the next.
The Holmes and the Safdies clearly show that there is nothing glamorous about this life. Harley has no stability and has to move around like a vagabond to survive. In one scene, we see a well-heeled New Yorker carelessly throw her dog’s droppings that narrowly miss hitting Harley and her friend when they are counting ill gotten gains near the train. It’s kind of a metaphor for her existence really; tossed around crap that no one really cares about.
Holmes is tough and fragile at the same time. She has lived an unimaginably difficult life for someone in her twenties but there is a certain delicate quality to her with her wispy hair and doe eyes. She brings a certain vitality to Harley’s character that only comes with lived experience. There are times when you really empathize with her character and then scream in frustration based on the decisions she makes. This isn’t a feel good story with a person getting into treatment and seeing the light. You go wherever Holmes goes in the film so you feel the lows and witness the highs. The Safdie’s excel at unflinching social realism and that’s what makes the film so powerful even in the moments where it is most difficult to watch.
Harley has to keep her habit up and deal with Ilya who can be both tender and an absolute monster at times. Their addiction further complicates the unevenness of their relationship. Eventually, Harley starts to hang out with a man named Mike (Buddy Duress) who seems to be somewhat more caring than Ilya. Mike is also a junkie so he does come with his own set of baggage. Just as we think Harley has moved on to Mike for good, Ilya comes back into the picture. Harley has to rely on the strength that she has to figure out where her life goes from this point forward.
This is one of the more honest and raw portrayals of drug addiction in a long time. It shows us unexpected developments like how the community now has access to the internet because of libraries and cheap cell phones (something you wouldn’t have seen several years ago). The use of nonprofessional actors adds to the cinema vérité feel of the piece. Holmes is a revelation and hopefully we will see more from her. With Heaven Knows What the Safdie’s have successfully added to their list of sleeper indie hits.