Resilience

An alcoholic company man with a prostitute fetish is dragged down by the escalating rage of his destitute uncle and embittered cousin in Paul Bojack’s gritty morality tale. When Jimmy (Henry LeBlanc) does a seemingly inconsequential favor for his Uncle Hodge (Al Rossi), he ignites a volatile feud between Hodge and his estranged son Andrew (Steve Wilcox). Jimmy sets out to ease the hostility between them and instead finds himself in a position to prevent one of their murders. Starkly funny and harrowing, Resilience takes you into the world of a man torn between adversity and cruelty.

“RESILIENCE, Paul Bojack’s dour examination of unexamined lives, is a slow-burning morality tale simmering with self-interest. One of those rare ensemble dramas whose actors work toward common goals rather than individual awards, the movie resolves its creeping escalation of poor judgment and reprehensible behavior with surprising emotional force. By the end, no illusion is left standing, even if getting there demands more patience than the average viewer might be willing to muster.

“Alternating intense close-ups with abrupt crosscutting, RESILIENCE builds its splintered narrative around Jimmy (Henry LeBlanc), a nondescript middle manager with a drinking problem, an imaginary girlfriend and an expensive call girl habit. After faking a work history for his uncle Hodge (Al Rossi), a poor schlub on the brink of homelessness, Jimmy is dismayed to receive threats of exposure from Hodge’s volatile son (Steve Wilcox). Fearing for his job, Jimmy embarks on a conciliatory mission as self-serving as it is ill-fated.

“Pinning the actors like moths on a specimen tray, Mr. Bojack’s camera reveals a morally compromised world where ends justify means and deception smoothes every relationship. No one here is remotely likable — even Jimmy’s new girlfriend turns out to be a fearful single mother looking for a soft place to fall — but their ethical trade-offs are uncomfortably familiar. Yes, we all lie, and mostly it’s O.K. Until suddenly it’s not.” (Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times)

“Like a working-class "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Resilience" hooks an ordinary man with a high-stakes moral dilemma and watches him squirm on the line. Devoid of irony or the wink-wink quirkiness that typifies other indie pics, Paul Bojack's rough-edged portrait of desperate souls observes as a series of little white lies and not-so-innocent omissions turn fatal: Lonely human resources manager Jimmy (Henry LeBlanc) ends up with blood on his hands after refusing to let a well-intentioned workplace indiscretion jeopardize his cushy job. Arthouse audiences who welcome challenging material will find sustenance in film's fractured narrative and unflinching characterizations.

“Though "Resilience" opens with Jimmy hiring a call girl to play out his fantasy of cheating on a nonexistent girlfriend, as sleazebags go, he's no worse than the other rock-bottom types who inhabit Bojack's world. There's his borderline homeless uncle (Al Rossi), the desperate alcoholic love interest (Julie Alexander) and his unscrupulous cousin (Steve Wilcox), who's contemplating a date with an underage hooker. Bojack studies these individuals with an almost Sartrean curiosity, damning Jimmy not with a smoking gun but the sound of a dead man's voice on his answering machine.” (Peter Debruge, Variety)

"RESILIENCE moves at a slow, realistic pace, drawing viewers into the story by revealing tiny pieces of it rather than spoon-feeding the audience its plot. In other words, it's a sure-fire disaster for those raised on MTV. Those who don't suffer from self-induced ADD should prepare themselves for a movie that actually cares about its characters and story, yet doesn't let anyone off the hook.

“Jimmy (Henry LeBlanc) is a man who works in Human Resources for a corporation that's doing some downsizing. He drinks a lot and sees a shapely prostitute on a regular basis as he likes to pretend he's cheating on a girlfriend he doesn't have. A few months ago he helped out his uncle Jeff (Al Rossi), a bit of charity that doesn't sit well with Jeff's son Andrew (Steve Wilcox). Andrew is so angered by Jimmy's transgression that he's going to ruin the office drone's life.

“To expose any more of the plot would be to lessen the film's emotional impact. The characters do the wrong things for the right reasons, they act selfishly, and they regret a whole heck of a lot, but at the end of the day some people are made to face the results of their actions and it's a very unpleasant picture.

“It's rare to see a film these days that moves at such a deliberately slow pace. Paul Bojack, the writer/director, merely hints at what is driving these folks. The audience learns things when Bojack is ready to reveal them, and that keeps you watching. It's as if the viewers are dropped down into the middle of these people's lives just to witness a chain of events, and then plucked away as Jimmy finally faces what he's done. You don't see his final actions, but you don't need to. You've seen enough.

"RESILIENCE is definitely not a light summer film. It's the kind of movie you watch on a rainy Saturday night with a glass of wine and a fire crackling in the fireplace. It's a film that's meant to be contemplated, but not discussed. And it's all about what happens when you take the easy way out. Kudos to Bojack for showing how dangerous that route can sometimes be.” (Doug Brunell, Film Threat)