Firstness & Frankie (Short)
**Seen at the 2021 Atlanta Film Festival.
“Firstness” is an odd bird of a movie. It’s endearing and sweet, a bit strange, and centered on three characters in the process of figuring themselves out. That last part is central to the success of Brielle Brilliant’s film, as a father, a child and a young man work towards getting to whatever that next step in life is. That’s where our empathy for “Firstness” is built, and is released near the end.
Keith (Tim Kinsella) is a father struggling with issues that are never quite defined, although it seems as though they are responsible for the dissolution of his marriage. When we see him, it is in this experimental therapy group called Infinite Beginnings. The issues, we surmise, have to do with anger and stressful situations triggering his anger. He’s often seen listening to motivational and inspirational speeches, presumably to help him relax. His home looks nice on the ground level, but the upstairs is in disarray, and it’s in one of the bedrooms upstairs that we see Tavi (Allex Jording). Tavi is non-gendered (they/them), and often in their own world. When Tavi sees a young man, Julian (Caleb Cabrera), fall off his bike, on the way to school, Tavi gets the bus driver to let them off, and Tavi ends up spending the day with Julian, who is struggling to find work while he’s out of prison on probation.
That is the setup for Brilliant’s film, but it doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the tone they take in approaching the subject matter. There are times when this is simply a tender story of connection, or attempted connection, between characters, but there are also times (especially at Infinite Beginnings) when it appears to skirt the line of subversive comedy. There are other times, like when Tavi and Julian are in a desert together, when it feels like a surreal tone poem, and yet others when it is an anxiety-inducing drama about “What ifs?” regarding their “friendship.” That makes it sound as though “Firstness” is kind of all over the place in tone, but everything feels very controlled in how it moves from one scene to another, one type of scene to another type, and making it successfully to the ending that Brilliant wants to achieve. I enjoyed the performances and the way these characters struggle, but also want to understand one another, and be understood. That “Firstness” doesn’t insist that we do makes it as unique and worthy of our time as the characters it follows.
“Firstness” was paired with the short film, “Frankie” (A), as part of the festival’s virtual library, and it makes sense because both films are about people who’s actions are misunderstood by others, who want to be understood. In James Kautz’s short film, a non-binary trans person (Morgan O’Sullivan) crashes a men’s 12-step meeting with 10 minutes to go, needing somewhere to go, and be heard. Frankie has 3 minutes to share, but we sense there is something more to why they chose this particular meeting. Kautz’s editing doesn’t make his intentions as a storyteller subtle, but the ending still lands with a blunt force intensity that is befitting the moment Frankie has by the end. It’s a powerful piece of drama, and a fitting companion piece to the main event that is Brilliant’s film.
