Georgian filmmaker Levan Koguashvili’s Tribeca prize-winner, “Brighton 4th,” is a tragicomedy that sneaks up on you stealthily earlier than flooring you with an emotional sucker punch within the remaining reel. At first, the movie appears to be merely about unhappy sacks who compulsively gamble, dropping the cash they’ve been despatched by members of the family partially as a result of they will assist giving in to mounting irritation. The amusing opening scene, by which a person (Temur Gvalia) makes an attempt to pay an obnoxious fellow gambler in order that he’ll depart, solely to seek out himself forcibly faraway from the room, is mirrored by a painful second within the movie’s midsection, when a youthful man, Soso (Giorgi Tabidze), gambles away his remaining {dollars} in an act of desperation, all of the whereas being laid low with the consuming habits of the man seated throughout from him. Each Gvalia and Tabidze’s addicts have a knack for digging deeper and deeper holes for themselves, and one imagines their lives would’ve fallen aside utterly had they not had the nice fortune of being associated—as brother and son, respectively—to the person who emerges as the center of the movie, Kakhi.
He’s performed by former Olympic world champion wrestler Levan Tedaishvili in solely his second display credit score, following his portrayal of a titular function in 1987’s “Khareba da Gogia.” His great efficiency right here remembers every part I cherished concerning the late Richard Farnsworth, a veteran stuntman who started performing later in life and proved to have grace and delicate nuance that was all his personal. For his remaining function as Alvin Straight in David Lynch’s 1999 masterpiece, “The Straight Story,” Farnsworth embodied the stubbornness of a person who decided to reside his twilight years on his personal phrases, refusing to see docs whereas going to monumental lengths to help his household. The identical could possibly be stated of Kakhi, whose journey from his house in Tbilisi to Soso’s present dwelling in Brooklyn’s Russian-speaking neighborhood of Brighton Seashore accompanies the image’s delayed title card, arriving across the 15-minute mark. Like Alvin, Kakhi has an intuitive sense about folks that allows him to look beneath their objectionable actions to seek out the aching human inside. This leads to quite a few scenes that start in a threatening method earlier than evolving into one thing disarmingly tender.
Take, for instance, the sequence the place Kakhi is recruited by Georgian immigrants at Soso’s boarding home as a heavy to intimidate Farik (Tolepbergen Baisakalov), the Kazakh employer extorting cash from the ladies he’s employed as motel cleaners. At first, Farik is enraged and defensive, however as quickly as one among his victims begins having a seizure, the dynamic shifts utterly, triggering a startling empathy inside the thief. This serves because the prelude to one of many movie’s greatest scenes, the place Kakhi reaches a spot of understanding with reference to Farik that enables him to see what nobody else can. He finally treats him no otherwise than he does his son, who squandered all the cash he was meant to place in direction of medical faculty, leaving him $14,000 in debt to an area mob boss, Amir (Yuri Zur). On prime of that, Soso is in want of an inexperienced card, which he hopes to acquire by means of a “faux marriage” to Lena, performed by the elegant Nadia Mikhalkova, who was unforgettably featured at a younger age in her father’s 1994 Oscar-winner, “Burnt by the Solar.” It’s clear, nonetheless, that there’s real love between the pair, as she tends to his wounds even after howling in fury at his self-inflicted misery.
In his director’s assertion, Koguashvili notes that for immigrants from the previous USSR, “America—the land of alternative—begins in Brighton Seashore and ends in Brighton Seashore, as a result of they will depart this place.” Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (“Nebraska”) lenses the neighborhood in an approach that always makes it indiscernible from Tbilisi, the place historic statues are seen in the identical body because of the golden arches of McDonald’s. A majority of the movie’s ensemble is comprised of non-professional actors from Brighton Seashore whose mere presence enriches the movie immensely. Lots of my favorite musical sequences over the previous decade—significantly the breathtaking prolonged dance in Nana Ekvitimishvili and Simon Groß’s 2013 gem, “In Bloom”—are from Georgian cinema, and the moments in “Brighton 4th” the place characters break into the track, dissolving tensions with their shared cultural heritage, are not any exception.
Other than Tedaishvili, the movie’s different nice efficiency is delivered by Kakhi Kavsadze, the Georgian display legend famed for his work in 1970’s “White Solar of the Desert” and to whom the movie is devoted (he handed away final April at age 85, two months previous to the image’s world premiere at Tribeca). He performs Sergo, the boarding home’s pleasant opera-belting inhabitant who now works as a doorman however can’t resist incorporating songs into his day, whether or not or not they’re requested. Kavsadze’s passing makes the movie’s remaining, completely pitched moments all of the extra astonishing of their poignance, but when seen merely on the facility of its narrative, “Brighton 4th” has a cumulative influence that’s unmistakable.
Kakhi is so decided to hold a load of his cherished one’s issues on his shoulders that he can’t even bear telling the reality of Soso’s predicament to his spouse (Laura Rekhviashvili), although she is aware of him nicely sufficient to see by means of each well-meaning deception. Tedaishvili by no means has to boost his voice with the intention to maintain our consideration arrested, and it’s his quiet confidence, above all, that earns the movie’s largest laughs. “Brighton 4th” may’ve simply approached its story with lethal seriousness, and there are a lot of features to it which are terribly despairing. But Koguashvili finds such endearing heat within the type acts of his characters that we’re left smiling by means of our tears, grateful for those whose sacrifices have made our lives doable. It is usually a testomony to what particular qualities performers whose background is just not predominantly in performing can carry to their roles. Simply because Tedaishvili and Farnsworth have a real sweetness about them don’t imply they’re in any approach mushy. The inherent power of their display personas can’t be faked, and when it’s placed on full show, there isn’t anyone we’d reasonably have in our nook.