Dan Sallitt

Dan Sallitt’s Fourteen (2019) is a beautifully realized story of a friendship between two young women. Mara and Jo, in their twenties, have been close friends since middle school. Jo, the more outgoing figure, is a social worker who runs through a series of brief but intense relationships. Mara, a less splashy personality than Jo, bounces among teacher aide jobs while trying to land a position in elementary education, and writes fiction in her spare time. She too has a transient romantic life, though she seems to settle down after meeting Adam, a mild-mannered software developer.Read More »

Over the course of a decade, a young woman becomes increasingly dysfunctional due to undiagnosed mental illness, or perhaps to drugs, while her more stable friend sometimes tries to help, sometimes backs away to preserve herself.Read More »

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The movie is produced by EZTV, a production company and exhibition venue founded in Los Angeles in 1979 by John Dorr and other people (including Michael J. Masucci, who plays the cinema manager in Polly Perverse). How did you come in contact with them? How did your project fit into their structure?Read More »

A couple in their thirties marry after years of friendship, and go on their honeymoon without having had a physical relationship. Over the course of their honeymoon they encounter sexual difficulties and conflict owed to their heightened self-consciousness and overbearing expectations for how things should be. Feeling that the marriage is hanging by a thread, the couple works desperately towards a solution.Read More »

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Sallitt has written repeatedly that his favorite director is Howard Hawks. All the Ships at Sea shows the influence of Hawks. The story telling is vigorous, the characters are rich, and the logically constructed story development is character-centered, showing vivid interactions between the principal performers. Both sisters are get-up-and-go types in the Hawks tradition. The older sister spends the entire film, taking every action she can to help the younger sister, who is in trouble. She also tries to help other people, in the course of the film. The younger sister is less functional, being in the grip of a religious cult. But the film stresses the younger sister’s willingness to take personal action in accordance with her religious convictions. She is not passive or a victim; she is a person who stands up for what she thinks is right.Read More »

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Set on a quiet tree-lined street in Brooklyn, The Unspeakable Act is an acclaimed, darkly funny film about a young girl’s unusual coming of age. Jackie Kimball is a normal 17-year-old girl – except that for as long as she can remember, she’s been in love with her older brother Matthew. The two siblings rely on each other for friendship and support, but Matthew doesn’t share his sister’s feelings. When Matthew departs for college, Jackie sets out to meet other boys, and for the first time, must contend with life on her own.Read More »