It’s seven o’clock, and someone has decided to kill himself.
This is one of the first films ever done by Justin “J.D.” Funari, a grass-roots guerilla filmmaker from Albany, New York. Not a bad effort for a first shot, but filled with many “gives” that show it is a first attempt: overly introspective, lack of actual story, starring himself only.
As a learning piece, it is valuable, and rather impressive if it is one of the first things he ever did. (Believe me, the first thing I ever shot and edited is excruciating to watch.)
The film itself is a suicide note set to the music of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son.” The Beethoven is a little melodramatic and the piece would have been better with just Cat Stevens (although the message behind Moonlight Sonata is a little more appropriate for the brooding message of the film).
From a cinematic and artistic standpoint, there is some interesting work with camera angles and the look of some imagery. Cut together with a directed randomness reminiscent of an art-house favorite you might see at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, “Seven O’clock” paints the picture of the main character’s pain rather than show it to you in a traditional story.
However, “Seven O’clock” fails to be a true experimental piece as well. With too much experimentation to be a narrative and too much narrative to be an experimental film, “Seven O’clock” comes and goes without much to remember it by.
