Catharsis

In Director Brian Logvinsky’s fifteen-minute short, Harrison Ball stars Alex, a professional dancer who allows his anger to threaten his career and the only income keeping a roof over his and his aunt’s (played by mother-of-punk, Debbie Harry) heads. Alex’s anger, which he likens to a family curse, influences his destructive nature and is in danger of destroying everything he has worked for. Dancing with the darkest corners of his mind, Alex meets a psychotherapist Dr. Leechny (Marc Geller) who, through a brutalist hypnotic session, helps Alex rediscover his passion for his craft and finally puts his rage to rest. Loosely based on Logvinsky’s Russian-American roots, Catharsis is an unsettling dive into responsibility, loss and an art form that too often curses the body it inhabits with an inevitably that threatens to crush the soul.

Starting off in a colorless world, a toned, shirtless dancer blows off steam at a New York punk show. After thrashing the meat on his bones, he falls into a sexual encounter with a couple, which triggers his anger and his fists. With a synchronicity that only a dancer of Alex’s caliber could create, he rains down bloody knuckles like violence is his first breath of fresh air. From there the story unfolds as one of self-discovery. Alex is drowning in the mire of his exhaustion as he fights to free himself from the quicksand of responsibilities. His anger has everyone worried—not only the dance company he works for but also his aunt Anya, who relies on him to pay the bills. The relationship between Alex and his aunt is strained and no amount of caviar and salmon sandwiches can satisfy his desire to get away from her expectations. After a commercial about a psychotherapist catches the woman’s eye, Aunt Anya pleads with her nephew to seek help before he ruins his life and his mother’s memory. Alex’s anger seems intertwined with the traumas of his loss and the stresses of an immigrant’s life in America. The mere mention of his mother, or the sounds of newsbreaks filtering out of the Russian-Ukraine war, unleashes his inner villain, turning his only relative into the embodiment of his rage and release. With a cameo from “Girls” star Jemima Kirke, who plays the “surgeon of the subconscious’’ flirtatious assistants Harmony and Chakra, Alex embarks on a mind-melting treatment that ends in a state of manic movement as the streets of New York play witness to his catharsis.

Produced by fashion designer Zac Posen along with Miranda Kahn, Catharsis feels like a fevered dream where surrealism and religious imagery dangle the viewer over the precipice of the American immigrant experience. Building a narrative that walks us through Alex’s past, present and uncertain future, Logvinsky creates an undeniable feeling of tension that only grows until the final moments when we witness Alex’s emotional freefall. Each scene is a cathartic release, as they culminate into a transformative dance that signifies Alex’s redemption from his curse.

Cinematographer Jo Jo Lam masterfully creates a duality in personality with the juxtaposition of black and white bleeding into color and filling the fifteen-minute run time with a cycle of montages that are as gritty as they are sexy. With a heavy injection of danger that leaves the viewer as desperate as Alex is for a release, the payoff of this watch is exactly what the title suggests.

The strength of the performances is where this film shines brightest, with New York City Ballet alumni Ball burning down the screen with his talents as he wrestles with the heavily accented Harry, who lives as a constant reminder of his Russian culture and the curse he is determined to break. The responsibility to stay true to his upbringing feels like a weight bearing down on Alex’s chest. In a scene where Anya questions his loyalty to his mother, the two have an altercation and the camera cuts away, leaving the outcome to the viewer’s worst imagination and making the need for a cathartic release necessary. With a heavy focus on the angles and movement of Ball’s body, Logvinsky captures a stunning image of a dancer unraveling in their rebellion. Each scene feels like a snapshot of his current state of emotional and professional frustrations: from drowning out his aunt with exercise and loud music to the violence he sees as a tension release, the story is told through a perfect union of direction, photography, and acting talent. No other scene in the film demonstrates this more than when Alex, finally free of his curse, dances through a flock of birds for all of New York to witness. It’s a moment that defines the title and is beautiful to watch.

If a hauntingly melancholic film noir about a man who is searching for meaning in life outside of his dancing shoes sounds like a breath of fresh air to you, then give Catharsis a watch. Any experimental film enthusiast who is captivated by darkness and the human experience will want to dance with this devil of a short.