Matthew Fifer writes and co-stars in this understated drama about a man struggling with his past as he forges a new bond.
The camera in “Cicada” dwells on scars, literal and metaphorical. There’s a rough, discolored line running down the stomach of Sam (Sheldon D. Brown), the new boyfriend of Ben (Matthew Fifer). Ben drags his finger along that line while the two are in bed together. And there are the ambiguous nightmares that take Ben back to his Long Island childhood home and the beach nearby, the noise of cicadas and waves of the nearby ocean deafening.
Ben is first introduced via an elliptical montage of alcohol-infused dates and hookups. But after these encounters, he often finds himself on the floor of his small room overcome with nausea or shaken awake by nightmares. An impromptu date with Sam, which does not lead to sex, unlocks new possibilities for healthy intimacy for Ben, but also reopens the old wounds he’s let scar over.
“Cicada,” which is directed by Fifer and Kieran Mulcare, is a muted affair, with even its diffused and desaturated palette conveying a sense of understatement. Ben and Sam’s blossoming romance does a lot of telling and little showing. While there’s the occasional amusingly idiosyncratic section of dialogue that sounds like a series of stagily poetic non-sequiturs, much of the couple’s bonding feels straightforward and unremarkable.
The sound design by Gisela Fulla-Silvestre and Travis Jones gives the film a modicum of thoughtful and detailed texture. Their calibrated and minimalist soundscape is subtle and graceful, offering insight into an ostensibly complex relationship informed by trauma when the rest of the film struggles to do so.
Cicada
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
