HELLAWARE
Hellaware
Michael M. Bilandic, 2014
Catalog No.: FTF=051
Length: 73 minutes
Hellaware gently satirizes the world of high-brow art through the eyes of a wannabe photographer who becomes consumed by the bright lights of mainstream success. Jaded by the “incestuous, New York, socialite shit” that sells at prominent art galleries, Nate (Keith Poulson) embarks on a quest for a more authentic brand of contemporary art. When a coked-up YouTube search leads to a music video from Delawarean Goth rappers Young Torture Killers, an Insane Clown Posse knock-off, Nate knows he’s found his subjects. He soon drags his friend-with-benefits Bernadette (Sophia Takal) to rural Delaware to shoot the group playing in their parents’ basement. To “immerse himself” in the group’s culture and add an extra layer of realism to his work, Nate befriends the rappers and makes return trips to get to know them. But as his relationship with the group develops, he becomes increasingly aware that, while you can take the boy out of the art world, you can’t take the art world out of the boy.
Directed and Written by Michael M. Bilandic
Produced by Spencer Kiernan and Rachel Michelle Fernandes
Cinematography by Sean Price Williams
Editing by Jason Giampietro
Additional Editing by Robert Greene
Photography in film by Eléonore Hendricks
Starring: Keith Poulson, Sophia Takal, Kate Lyn Sheil, Brent Butler
Festivals: BAMCinemafest, Sidewalk Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Refocus Film Festival
PURCHASE
WATCH THE FILM
March 3, 2022
Chelsea Theater, Chapel Hill, NC info
PRESS
“A trippy indie odyssey."
- Andrew O'Hehir, Salon
"A sharp-edged comedy of subcultures in collision."
- Benjamin Mercer, AV Club
"“Hellaware” feels like a throwback, with scenes bringing to mind John Waters’s “Pecker” or the sensitive actor at a party who asks Annie Hall to touch his heart with her foot. But the old story of art as a refuge for scoundrels and callow youth is amusing and updated with assorted details (low-key banter, ultracasual cocaine snorts)."
- Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times
“What might happen if Jim Jarmusch directed an episode of "Girls."
- Eric Kohn, Indiewire
“Bilandic proves himself an affectionate pop anthropologist.”
- Nick Pinkerton, Bombast
"Taking satirical aim at the pretensions of Brooklyn hipsters and the New York City art gallery scene is like shooting fish in a barrel, but director/screenwriter Michael C. Bilandic (Happy Life) pulls it off with rough-hewn aplomb in his ultra-low-budget sophomore feature."
-Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
“Should be required viewing for all documentary filmmakers.”
- Bassam Tariq, Dir: These Birds Walk
“Looks, sounds, and feels so real that it skirts the edges of pure documentary...Wickedly, viciously hilarious and flat-out brilliant.”
- Less Lee Moore, Popshifter
“An hilarious look at hipster art culture.”
- William Brownridge, Toronto Film Scene
“Bilandic humorously punctures the pretensions of artists’ exploitation of people in the name of “authenticity,” betraying a class-based sense of superiority that, for Nate, collapses with the film’s wickedly effective concluding punchline.”
- Christopher Bourne, Twitch Film
“A bizarre satire of the pretentious New York art scene, Hellaware is both a disturbing and comedic depiction of the life of a struggling photographer. It is worth watching for anyone with a strong stomach and a dark sense of humor.”
- Meaghan Katz, Double Exposure
“The ending goes to unexpected places, and delighted this viewer with something you don’t see enough in movies: an actual punchline.”
- Jordan Hoffman, Film.com