Saturday April 28

In the brutal world of high school, almost anyone might be a candidate for suicide.  A grungy gay boy fights back at ever-present homophobia, but depends on a steady pot intake to soothe his inner torment.  The high-strung academic superstar, burdened by parental pressure, writes a disturbing short story for English class that just might be true.  A vicious popular girl has an eating disorder, and the school jock looks like a carefree Adonis, but he’s got an incendiary secret of his own.  In this searing cautionary drama, director Murali K. Thalluri delivers a stunning debut.  Only nineteen at the time of filming, Thalluri was inspired by a personal experience with teen suicide, and has stated that making 2:37 was his own personal salvation.  While acknowledging a deep stylistic debt to Gus Van Sant’s groundbreaking film Elephant, and indeed, the influences are unmissable -  the camera roves through school hallways, following the cast through an overlapping and interconnected series of private journeys, piecing together their stories over the course of one fateful day -   Thalluri goes further, punctuating the film with intimate black-and-white interviews with the kids, giving voice to fears, dreams, cruelty and tenderness that they would never share with each other.  The cast is astonishingly naturalistic, letting us glimpse vulnerability, but carefully covering it back up with self-defensive stoicism.  The biggest secret, it seems - what every high school student keeps locked in their closet - is their own secret pain.

Murali K. Thalluri was born in Canberra, Australia.  He was inspired to make 2:37 (2006) after receiving the suicide video of a friend.  This is his filmmaking debut.

Regal South Beach
4:00 pm Screening
$13 Non-Members/ $10 Members