23-year-old Martine (Olivia Thirlby) has just arrived in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles when she moves into a wealthy family’s pool house, and begins working to complete her art film. Meanwhile, Peter (John Krasinski), a laid-back father of two, agrees to his wife’s request to help their young guest complete the project. The more time Martine spends with her surrogate family, the more apparent it becomes no one will walk away from this situation unchanged.
Nobody Walks is a 2012 American independent drama film directed by Ry Russo-Young. The film premiered in Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won a special Jury Prize. The film stars John Krasinski, Olivia Thirlby, Rosemarie DeWitt, India Ennenga, Jane Levy and Justin Kirk, and was co-written by Russo-Young and Lena Dunham. Magnolia Pictures released the film on VOD September 6, 2012 and in theaters October 12, 2012.
Film Review for Nobody Walks
“Nobody Walks” is a movie about a woman who listens but doesn’t hear. Martine is making an experimental short film about scorpions and ants, and for the soundtrack, she requires — oh, all sorts of sounds. She arrives in Los Angeles as the house guest of Peter, a studio sound engineer, and his wife, Julie, a psychiatrist. Peter obediently records the sounds of clicks and clacks, wind and rain, water and traffic, and even Martine’s breathing. At first, he does this as a favor. Soon he is doing it as a form of flirtation.
Martine (Olivia Thirlby) is young, full-lipped, short-haired and carelessly flirtatious. Before long, she and Peter (John Krasinski) are having sex on his editing table. Julie (Rosemarie DeWitt) sniffs out what’s going on, and at first bottles it up and even begins an unstated flirtation with her patient Billy (Justin Kirk), an insecure filmmaker. Meanwhile, Kolt (India Ennenga), her daughter from a previous marriage, sees Martine and Peter snogging in the car in the driveway and is perhaps inspired to flirt with her Italian teacher (Stacy Barnhisel), along with Peter’s assistant, David (Rhys Wakefield), and Avi (Sam Lerner), a schoolmate who has a crush on her.
What we have here is a household ripe with seduction, lust, betrayal and repression, all kept below the surface by increasingly strained good manners. The real villain is Martine, who is young enough to know the power of her sexuality and old enough to employ it more wisely. The pretext of her art film grows increasingly ludicrous; it’s the self-indulgence of a (probably) rich kid who uses her family connections to enlist free help from a sound editor who (judging by his house) usually works on much larger films. What is the point of Martine’s black-and-white closeups of insects? This isn’t a documentary but a pretentious exercise; a late shot of ants creeping around a nipple put me in mind of Bunuel and Dali’s “Un Chien Andalou.” What does it tell you? Ants are not nipples, for sure.
“Nobody Walks” proves to be unsatisfactory because it establishes a well-defined group of characters and shows them disrupted by the careless behavior of a tiresome young woman and two adults who allow themselves to be motivated in one way or another by her infectious libido. Is this a bad thing? The movie observes it with the same detachment as it does the insects. Wait! Maybe that’s the point.
Nobody Walks (2012)
Directed by: Ry Russo-Young
Starring: John Krasinski, Olivia Thirlby, Rosemarie DeWitt, India Ennenga, Dylan McDermott, Justin Kirk, Rhys Wakefield, Emanuele Secci, Sam Lerner, Samantha Ressler, Mason Welch
Screenplay by: Lena Dunham, Ry Russo-Young
Production Design by: Linda Sena
Cinematography by: Christopher Blauvelt
Film Editing by: John W. Walter
Costume Design by: Kim Wilcox
Art Direction by: Mando Lopez
Music by: Will Bates, Fall On Your Sword
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality, language and some drug use.
Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: October 12, 2012
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