Vack is a little anachronistic in his delivery, which is a hair modern for the period. This is forgivable, as it sets his character as an outsider and makes him relatable to this century. Gross is dead solid perfect, giving one of the best performances of an author caught onscreen. She lights up every literary light on the map, with the old school aura pouring from her like bourbon from Faulkner’s bottle.
I hate to be nitpicky, but when a project comes so close to perfection like An Evening Song, even the most minor flaw blares like a truck horn. First off, there is a subtitle to the main title that reads as a whole, An Evening Song (for three voices). The subtitle is redundant as well as misrepresentative, as it makes the movie sound like a filmed staged reading, which it is definitely not.
“…one clever motherf*cker.”
The other two infractions are biblical, which doesn’t leave any wiggle room. The name of Jacob’s hairy brother in the Old Testament, Esau, is pronounced Ee-saw, not Essa-yuh. I know not everyone received their Bible instruction via vinyl as I did as a child (Purple Puzzle Tree and Godspell Original Cast), but Esau also had his own Grateful Dead song, so it isn’t a secret as to how to pronounce the name. The other biblical infraction is from the writer’s bible, Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, where we learn that you do not use commas when a conjunction is present. There is a hardcover book in the movie with a cover that reads something like Memories, or Distant Thunder. The comma looks awful and wrong. Just see “milk, and cookies” “peanut butter, and jelly” “rock, and roll” to get an idea about how awkward it looks.
None of these mistakes is a deal breaker, but they are so noticeable when you have a creation as ambitious and brilliant as An Evening Song. This is a major cinematic event disguised as an oddball indie film. That the whole thing also doubles as a Bigfoot picture just makes it all the more remarkable. An Evening Song is a strikingly existential exploration of the social skyscraper against a backdrop of classic American literature.
"…a strikingly existential exploration of the social skyscraper against a backdrop of classic American literature."
