It’s currently seeking distribution.Goblins and Witches and Trolls.

Paint It Black recently had its world premiere at the Los Angeles film festival.

In comparison to all that’s come before, Josie’s encounter with the person who discovered Michael’s body feels rushed, lessening the impact of the film’s climax, which aims for catharsis but comes up a little short. Tamblyn falters mildly during her film’s last stretch, when she veers from the central struggle of wills to offer a strained sense of closure for Josie. When your run-of-the-mill studio drama would eventually work to bond the pair, Paint It Black instead stays true to the essence of its characters and keeps them stubbornly at odds in spite of the collective loss they share. The two engage in an emotionally bruising game of cat and mouse, with a drunk Meredith ransacking Josie and Michael’s apartment to claim some of her son’s possessions, and Josie retaliating by blunt means. Meredith makes for a fascinating contrast to Josie: an imperious and revered pianist, she’s more driven than Josie but far more damaged. Instead, she homes her focus in on the very different ways Josie and Michael’s mother, Meredith (Janet McTeer), confront his death. The film, however, doesn’t wallow in what was one of Tamblyn’s boldest choices is omitting any specifics on what led Michael to take his own life.

Tamblyn wisely opts to lighten the mood during a playful flashback that follows, tracing the meet-cute scenario that caused Josie to fall for Michael. Lit by strobe lights and drowned out by deafening noise, Josie, in extreme closeup, appears numb and defeated.

The perspective doesn’t widen in the next sequence that sees Josie attempt to dance through her misery at a local punk rock club. Paralyzed by a sudden rush of grief, Josie sits immobile by the phone, and tears start running down her face as Tamblyn’s camera closes in. After a reckless night out, she comes home to a call informing her that her boyfriend Michael (Rhys Wakefield) has been found in a motel, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat proves herself to be a formidable and risk-taking dramatic presence as Josie, a young woman who lives hard and parties even harder.

Paint it black a novel