Directed by: H.P. Mendoza
Written by: Jesse Orenshein
Telling a story about grief through comedy isn’t easy. You don’t want to come across as flippant, but you want to provide enough levity to make an incredibly difficult emotion more palatable. Fortunately, The Secret Art of Human Flight succeeds in this.
In this film, Ben Grady (Grant Rosenmeyer) is struggling to cope with his wife Sarah’s (Reina Hardesty) unexpected death and subsequent criminal investigation. In his grief, he turns to a strange self-help book from the dark web, written by an unusual man named Mealworm (Paul Raci) that will supposedly teach him to fly.
This movie is so well-written; it does a wonderful job of showing both the grief of losing a loved one as well as the grief of watching a loved one suffer loss and not knowing how to help. Despite the heavy subject matter, the dialogue is so funny, and several moments made me laugh out loud.
The strong script is carried by an equally strong cast. Rosenmeyer is excellent in the lead role. He has excellent comedic timing and delivery, but he still tugs at your heartstrings, especially in a completely dialogue-less scene toward the end of the film.
The standout, however, is Lucy DeVito as Ben’s sister Gloria, who balances genuine concern and frustration so well. There’s a bit after a dinner scene early in the film where she has a small breakdown, and it’s so subtle but so heart-wrenching that it made me choke up. As a big sister myself, I found her role extra impactful.
My gripes with this film are mostly technical. The editing is creative, but the camera work in some places feels messy, the lighting is drab, and the audio sounds tinny in some parts. I don’t think it’s due to budgetary constraints or a lack of skill, so it all might have been an artistic decision, but it personally doesn’t work for me.
Despite this, The Secret Art of Human Flight is an equally beautiful and heartbreaking movie that I would absolutely recommend.
You can catch this movie in select theaters starting July 3rd.
Have you seen The Secret Art of Human Flight? What did you think?
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