To know Dan Sallitt’s cinema is to only wish for more. After 2019’s Fourteen, his rough rate of one feature every seven years will hold in rather surprising, welcome fashion: Sallitt has shared with me information on What Can’t Be Mentioned, which is not only a new project but a sequel to his 2012 film The Unspeakable Act. Tallie Medel (Fourteen, Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Sky Hirschkron are reprising their roles as Jackie and Matthew, while Kyle McCormack and Kit Zauhar (This Closeness) will play their respective partners; Caroline Luft also returns as Jackie’s therapist. Production is expected to begin this October.
Embracing incestuous desire as rather matter-of-fact dramatic material, The Unspeakable Act galvanized some upon its appearance more than a decade ago. Yet few movies, American or otherwise, in even semi-recent memory devote themselves to approaching such subjects so intuitively, gently, humorously. It remains available to rent or stream, while those who want to throw around a little cash can easily buy a DVD that includes Sallitt’s excellent 2004 film All the Ships at Sea. If his standard is met on What Can’t Be Mentioned, I anticipate one of 2026’s most notable films, and really: who wants to be left out?
Asked about the intent to revisit familiar ground, Sallitt said the following:
“Really, all indicators point in the direction of not-returning as opposed to returning. I had a too-expensive project which is really what I wanted to do next—but no economic miracle happened. This sequel was originally part two of an Unspeakable Act trilogy—but I decided that part three wasn’t that good, which left me with this odd bridge-to-nowhere sequel. What it has going for it is that it’s definitely cheap enough to self-finance. And somehow it still makes me laugh after all these years. What’s the good of paying for your own films if you can’t foist upon the world a sequel that it didn’t ask for?”
Here’s an extended synopsis of What Can’t Be Mentioned:
Jackie Kimball, 28 and living with her boyfriend Anthony, is suddenly beset by sexual difficulties and a loss of desire. Despite Anthony’s understanding reaction, Jackie is conspicuously rattled by the disruption of what was previously perfectly good sex life. Now in her last year of field experience for a Master of Social Work degree, Jackie leads a busy life of clinical practice and paperwork, and snatches only a few hours here and there to spend with Anthony, whose day job leaves him time to pursue his musical interests. In the process of downloading a mix playlist from her brother Matthew, now married, Jackie learns that Matthew is expecting his first child. Pleased and a little bemused by the news, Jackie starts thinking about taking a week off from her internship and visiting Matthew.
Matthew lives in a house with his wife Lily, a likable, down-to-earth girl who is just starting her second trimester. As soon as she arrives, Jackie seems to put aside her responsible working-adult personality and relax into a more expansive, theatrical mode. Jackie and Lily have been friendly as long as they’ve known each other, and Matthew recedes comfortably into the background as the more outgoing women get reacquainted on the first night of Jackie’s visit. Though she claims not to be a heavy drinker, Jackie manages to imbibe enough wine that she needs help getting to bed. As Lily and Matthew prepare for bed, Lily asks about Jackie’s acting out, but Matthew takes Jackie’s dramatic side for granted. Lily is more curious than troubled.
The mood of the three-way relationship remains pleasant: Lily and Matthew are both even-tempered, and Jackie seems to be enjoying the opportunity to push boundaries without consequences. That same night, however, Jackie confronts Matthew, telling him that their closeness will remain superficial as long as they avoid discussion of “the phase”: Jackie’s childhood-long, unrequited incestuous attraction to Matthew. The issue is not news to Matthew, and he seems willing to talk about it with Jackie, but she is more ill at ease than he, and terminates with awkward abruptness the conversation that she herself began.
The post Dan Sallitt to Direct The Unspeakable Act Sequel What Can’t Be Mentioned first appeared on The Film Stage.
from The Film Stage https://ift.tt/vjBGmNI
0 Comments