If you still miss Daisy Jones & The Six, then The Brink Of is the answer. This musical romance has beautiful and catchy songs (“Sunny” will be stuck in your head for days after watching it and you won’t mind at all as it is that good) that make it a perfect depiction of love with music not forgetting to mention the great chemistry and talent between its two main characters Nicolette Norgaard and Tim Hoffman.
Norgaard portrays Lena a shy songwriter who comes out of her shell and finds her voice when James (played by Hoffman), a musician in a band gaining some popularity, hears her sing while she was performing somewhere and becomes instantly enthralled by her abilities. They are both awesome separately but together; their combination creates magic. Bickerings between them have been vividly contrasted with each other and tension has been present from the beginning which makes every funny bit even more appealing than tearful ones. Her performance painfully shows how difficult it can be desiring what you cannot attain, his fear of commitment in true love also makes him seem very realistic.
Love triangles can become cliché, but several actors save this film. Julia’s role is well played by Mina Tobias who is hilarious in every scene she steals. A radio presenter by Yael Tygiel keeps on intruding into scenes asking personal questions from duo- a smart directorial decision that helps keep the audience grounded as well as inform them about the characters more.
This movie wisely uses two parallel timelines — their last few years before they became popular starting with high school versus after they had an argument but want to give things another shot so take a trip to finish writing their first album. Patrick Meaney does an excellent job of mixing today with flashbacks that help reveal these two complex people along with an even more complicated relationship during a tight hour-and-a-half worth of film footage. What stands out most about his camerawork is that he uses more shaky shots on past scenes while those of today are static and enclosed to show where they are on their respective journeys.
What is most impressive about the brink of movie, both in terms of its directing as well as the acting, is a long one-shot party scene at the climax that Meaney has captured so perfectly despite the fact there were hundreds of things moving around him when the shoot was ongoing. Perhaps it can be said that this would have been typical of any other fully funded film; but what about an independent one like this? It’s true to say that Meaney’s achievement has been nothing short of a miracle.
In total, everyone working in front of and behind the camera did a great job in making sure every component blended perfectly. Hopefully, like how we saw the band get some sunshine here, it won’t be long before our eyes will see a cast and crew treated with such respect and admiration – not least because these people still have many songs left in them.
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