Isaac is having a hard time. He doesn’t realise this yet himself, because facing up to reality is not what this early-forty-something from Los Angeles is particularly good at. Yet, after a while he can’t escape it: his girlfriend has left and isn’t coming back. And if you only get cast in commercials about diseases, it’s difficult to maintain that your acting career is going places.
In her striking feature debut, Janicza Bravo sketches a humorous and revealing portrait of a failure who gets deeper and deeper into trouble. Her husband Brett Gelman plays the lead – without a trace of shame – and also co-wrote the screenplay. Bravo, whose short film Gregory Go Boom (2013) won her the jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, takes her place in a long tradition of American independent filmmakers, but very much finds her own voice. Lemon is a very dry, alternatingly hilarious and alienating tragicomedy about the possibility of failure.
Opening Film IFFR 2017. Nominated for the VPRO Big Screen Award.
Film details
- Country of production
- USA
- Year
- 2017
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2017
- Length
- 87'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
