No doubt COVID-19 will be the subject of many films over the next few years, and they could do a lot worse than be as engaging as “Love in Dangerous Times,” a low-budget indie from Houston director Jon Garcia. Shot in the spring and early summer in Portland, Ore., “Dangerous Times” taps into the sense of emotional dislocation and quiet panic many are feeling these days while simultaneously offering a pandemic twist on the traditional boy-meets-girl formula.
At first, Jason (Ian Stout) comes across as the kind of person who you wouldn’t want to spend five minutes with, let alone 90. It’s spring 2020, and he’s a playwright totally consumed with the script he’s working on about a dying man’s last conversation.
Yet he’s haunted by the blank computer screen and a bad case of writer’s block. His self-absorption doesn’t allow much time to be particularly concerned with the growing viral threat or his family on the East Coast. His father wants him to come home so they can isolate together, but he won’t hear of it.
On top of that, his romantic life is in shambles. Largely because he’s the type of guy who says something totally inappropriate on a first Zoom date and not really see anything wrong with it.
Unrated (strong language, sexual situations)
Running time: 94 minutes
Where: Begins streaming Nov. 3 on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu and Fandango Now!
***½ (out of 5)
But as his external world worsens and the virus ventures closer to his door like a predator, trapping him in isolation in his home, he begins to change. His day job working at a restaurant turns him into a food-delivery guy, an activity that only fuels his budding paranoia.
In the midst of his enforced solitude, he begins an online flirtation with Sorrell (Tiffany Groben), but there’s a deeper connection here than his previous digital dalliances. Dating, even in the best of times, can be a treacherous landscape, but how to navigate this terrain without the option of actual human contact makes it thornier.
Working from a script he co-wrote with Stout, Garcia has made a film that is largely — though, importantly, not completely — told through Jason’s relationship with his computer, as his talks with Sorrell, his father and unreliable brother take on an increasing sense of despair, alarm and, in the case of Sorrell, commitment. Stout, who’s in every scene, is able to carry the film and the audience through Jason’s emotional growth.
Near the end, Garcia throws in some of the post-George Floyd protests that roiled Portland over the summer, but it feels a bit tacked on, though it underscores the overall feeling of things falling apart — except for, maybe, just maybe, Jason’s attempt at late-stage maturity.
“Love in Dangerous Times” may have been meant to capture a particular place and moment in the recent past, but, as the pandemic drags on and spikes around the world, it remains very much about the present.
cary.darling@chron.com
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October 29, 2020 at 06:16PM
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Houston director’s ‘Dangerous Times’ a love story for the pandemic age - Houston Chronicle
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