Paladin
presents
3RD STREET BLACKOUT
Opening TODAY April 29th
Co-created by and co-starring
Negin Farsad
(“The Muslims Are Coming!,” “Nerdcore Rising,” TED Fellow)
and
Jeremy Redleaf
(Streamy Award Winner “Odd Jobs,” “Sesame Street”)
Also starring
Ed Weeks (“The Mindy Project”),
Phyllis Somerville (“Little Children”),
Janeane Garofalo (“Wet Hot American Summer”)
John Hodgman (“Pitch Perfect 2,” “The Daily Show”)
Jordan Carlos (“The Nightly Show”)
Sasheer Zamata (“Saturday Night Live”)
If you’re in your thirties, you can easily remember a time in your youth when IMing was mind-blowing, chat rooms were presented as a thing of fun and danger, and MySpace was the coolest new awesomeness to ever exist. Nowadays, we live and breathe by texting, messaging, tweeting, instagramming, you name it, but most of it is online and very little exists as person to person interaction. The convenience and commonality of our technological advances has, in a lot of cases, destroyed the way we communicate as human beings. Swiping right (or perhaps left? I’m not sure, I’m married) is the new way to “date”. Now don’t get me wrong, I have four very close friends who are now married because of Match.com, but have we become too reliant on technology to really connect anymore? 3RD STREET BLACKOUT tackles that very question in the funniest way possible.
Mina, a neuroscientist and TED-talker, and Rudy, an app developer, live life like any typical NYC couple today. Texting, skyping, Netflixing and chillling their way through a seemingly healthy relationship. What happens when Hurricane Sandy rolls in and knocks out all of the power and signal, forces Mina and Rudy to confront a new conflict in old fashioned ways. Emoticons are no longer an option. Rudy escapes to Brooklyn to cool off while Mina flails in her own Manhattan environment. The two are lost without the other and it’s not until they break “social norms” and actually talk to one another does the problem get attention.
The script is ultra intelligent and incredibly timely. I was genuinely laughing out loud the entire 87 minute run. It felt more like a sit down with my closest friends, drinking and thinking, and less like a formulaic Hollywood rom-com. The dialogue is a super natural and sailor-mouthed delight. The cast is outstanding. Co-writers/Directors/Stars, Negin Farsad and Jeremy Redleaf are fanatstic. With and “every-man” (and woman) feel in their presence and NY attitude, I was with them from go. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the comedy stylings of Katie Hartman. Hartman plays one of Rudy’s app developer cohorts and could not be funnier. I would watch an entire film about her character, any day. Overall, I was impressed by this charming indie, chock filled with great performances from hilarious cast. I look forward to seeing more from Farsad and Redleaf in the near future.
3RD STREET BLACKOUT opens today in NYC!
About Negin Farsad
Though this is her first collaboration with Redleaf, Farsad previously produced, directed, and starred in the documentary hit, “The Muslims Are Coming!,” which also featured Jon Stewart, Lewis Black, Janeane Garofalo and David Cross. She also recently completed the feature, “Nerdcore Rising” starring “Weird” Al Yankovic and MC Frontalot. In addition to being selected as a TED Fellow, she was named one of the “50 Funniest Women” by the Huffington Post, and her first book, a memoir/manifesto entitled “How to Make White People Laugh,” will be published this May, as 3RD STREET BLACKOUT expands nationally, by Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette. She has also written for and appeared on various shows on Comedy Central, BBC & IFC among others.
About Jeremy Redleaf
Redleaf is an Emmy Award winning actor/writer/director/producer who has created award-winning digital, transmedia, and experiential productions through his Brackets Creative shingle, including “Odd Jobs,” winner of “Best New Web Series” at the Streamy Awards, and “Best Writing” at the International Television Festival. As a performer, he plays Gonnigan on “Sesame Street,” narrates numerous shows for MTV, and has appeared across television, films, and commercials.
Almost entirely shot in the woods, our lead character Ann has only her vehicle and two small camps on a lake. Screenwriter David Ebeltoft’s immensely effective script, utilizes intermittent flashbacks to show us how Ann came to be on her own. Once traveling with her husband and infant daughter, the audience must allow themselves to be with Ann in the present in order to feel emotionally connected. She is smart and resilient. She has learned that practicality is the only way to survive. Her newly gained skills sometimes fumble, adding to the realism factor. The minute she allows her emotions to control her path, things are bound to go awry. When Ann stumbles upon Chris and his step-daughter Olivia, her motherly instinct may be her undoing. Two mindsets are at play; Stay put or keep moving. Which would you choose? Blackhurst’s use of nudity is never without purpose. There is no glamour factor here, which is much appreciated in the genre in general. Lucy Walters‘ lead performance is breathtaking. It’s not until the very end that we discover what happened to Ann’s daughter. That particular scene, which we know from the very beginning we’ve been building up to, is one of the most gut-wrenching I’ve seen on film. Maybe it’s the new Mommy hormones, maybe it’s Ebeltoft specifically crafted script, or maybe it’s the perfect storm of the two. I don’t think I have ever wept while watching a horror film until now. In a “what would you do?” scenario from hell, HERE ALONE tears your heart out and challenges how you think you’d react in a doomsday situation. When you’re down to your last bullet, it’s life or death.
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