Verdict
Summary
Bill Connington, working with co-director Kelley Van Dilla, approaches the apocalypse in an elegiac fashion, using silence, quiet conversation, and introspective montages to tell a simple story of enduring love, even during the last sliver of life before a nuclear holocaust.
Plot:
Two lovers try to outrun the apocalypse.
Review (Spoilers):
Bohemian lovers Charles (Bill Connington, this film’s writer and co-director) and Eve (Natia Dune) sense that the apocalypse is imminent with constant and consistent emergency alerts on their phones informing them that mass shootings, regular bombings in the Middle East, and an impending Russian invasion on U.S. soil are going to forever alter the landscape of the world. Armed with only their artistic tools (such as paint brushes, canvases, and enough paint tubes to outlast a nuclear winter) to protect themselves from encroaching doom, they pack a few bags and some meager sustenance in their car and make for the wilds of Poughkeepsie. The outlying metropolis will most certainly succumb to chaos, but they’re headed for solitude, and they find it in a humble house where they turn inward towards each other, finding sexuality a binding force that will attempt to unite and bind them in a world gone wild. Charles, in his fears and nightmares, finds his way back to his faith, which he brings up in casual conversation with Eve, who seems to lack faith, but is willing to question the existence of God and how He (or She) sees them and the world they inhabit. Eve comes to the point where she doesn’t necessarily deny a Creator or a higher power, but she yearns for the space that a church can seemingly inspire her in this dark time when the world is about to enfold itself around them in a spire of nuclear plumes and ash. During their respite, Eve and Charles are devastated when she miscarries, and now – even in the face of annihilation – they mourn for their unborn child. As Charles looks back on a son he left behind with his ex-partner, he seems to understand that he’ll never again be reunited with him, but at this point it doesn’t matter … because the end is nigh for them all. In a final dénouement, Charles and Nadia embrace as the end of days arrives, and they step forward together in an afterlife that is kind, warm, and welcoming, as an angelic entity sings to them a new song and enfolds them into eternity.
Bill Connington, working with co-director Kelley Van Dilla, approaches the apocalypse in an elegiac fashion, using silence, quiet conversation, and introspective montages to tell a simple story of enduring love, even during the last sliver of life before a nuclear holocaust. The film is assembled like a Terrence Malick film done on the down low, with only two actors on screen (remember Malick’s film To the Wonder?), using a limited crew to convey a simplistic, down-to-earth tale of two people just trying to live their lives in the middle of global catastrophe. Infused with the fears of the common man (and woman), hopes for a better tomorrow, and spliced with a message of faith and fortitude, the movie has an earthy sensibility that combines sexuality and resilience to uplift its viewers in their own process of understanding their own time and predicaments as it unfolds in reality.
Poughkeepsie is for Lovers is now on VOD across all platforms in North America.
