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United States of AmericaCornelius is a sweet, character driven drama about a father who suffered a nervous breakdown and is now trying to reconnect with his estranged son, while attempting to navigate what has become for him a strange and unfamiliar world.
SynopsisWhen the movie opens, a man is just re-emerging into the world after a nervous breakdown caused by the traumatic loss of his wife while his son was just an infant. It's 7 years later, and the man has repressed the memories of his wife's death, and spends his time working a menial job and leaving small gifts on the front porch of the home where his son is now being raised.
Eventually, the man and the boy come face to face and, as he and the boy start to bond, the man begins to remember fragments of the buried trauma. While this experience propels him inevitably back towards a mental breakdown, he tries his best to connect with his son in a meaningful way before.
Director Giovanny Blanco (El Quickie, Viva Malpache, SHU-SHO) and writer Sarah Thorp (The Bounty, Twisted, TNT's Hawthorne) have put together a movie guaranteed to leave you with left with the hope that anything is possible.
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Directed by
Giovanny Blanco -
Written by
Sarah Thorp -
Produced by
Sarah Thorp, Giovanny Blanco and Rafael Blanco - Cornelius Website
Written by: Sarah Thorp
Produced by: Sarah Thorp, Giovanny Blanco and Rafael Blanco
Cast
Cornelius: Jason WilliamsThe Kid: Rock Williams
Derek the Clerk: Bobby Foster
Crazy Woman: Darling Narita
Social Worker: Julie Ann Fergus
Taco Truck Girl: Liliana Montero
Hotel Manager: Ira Katz
Taco Truck Man: Greg Rojas
Woman in Dream: Monica Ortiz
Crazy Talker: Josh Thorp
Bus Stop Lady: Irit Levi
Branch Manager: Scott Free
Substitute Social Worker: Rajiv Khilnani
Bird Lady: Sonja Starkovich
Shelly: Bailee Desrocher
JFK: LaMar Owens
Guard: Rafael Blanco
Baby in Dream: Anthony Jacob Casillas
Shoplifting Kid: Wolfgang Hogan
Clown: Lisa Wiegand
Grandmother: Grace Beans
Girl Walking Out: Iniobong Udosen
Guy on Bench: Giovanny Blanco
Other Kid: Zen Williams
Other Kid: Eileen Alden
Cop: Matthew Haselton
Cop # 2: Chris Smith
Crew
Director: Giovanny BlancoWriter: Sarah Thorp
Producer: Giovanny Blanco
Producer: Sarah Thorp
Co-Producer: Rafael Blanco
Director of Photography: Lisa Wiegand
Production Design (Oakland): Antonio Flatbush
Production Design (Los Angeles): Rodrigo Carrillo
Casting: Giovanny Blanco
Casting: Sarah Thorp
1st AD/Line Producer: Rafael Blanco
Production Manager: Gilbert Gil
Script Supervisor (Oakland): Matthew Haselton
Script Supervisor (Los Angeles): Edgar Molina
1st AC (Oakland): Crystal Chambers
1st AC (Los Angeles): Robbie Hart
Sound: Chris Smith
Boom Operator (Oakland): Eva Waples
Boom Operator (Los Angeles): Stephanie Choi
Still Photographer: Matthew Halston
Still Photographer: Gilbert Gil
Props Department: Julie Ann Fergus
Props Department: Iniobong "Ini" Udosen
Hair and Make-up: Adam Fleischauer
Hair and Make-up: Eileen Alden
Production Assistant: Iniobong "Ini" Udosen
Production Assistant: Crystal Chambers
Production Assistant: Eva Waples
Production Assistant: Matthew Haselton
Editor: Giovanny Blanco
Editing Consultant: Omar Cardenas
Editing Consultant: Rob Schultz
Color Correction: Giovanny Blanco
Location Scout: Iniobong "Ini" Udosen
Location Scout: Julie Ann Fergus
Location Scout: Lupe De Los Angeles
Catering: Eileen Alden
Catering: Madre De Matillde
Props Department: Madre De Matilde
Sound Mixer: Giovanny Blanco
Composer: Jaswho?
Songs: Spigga
Songs: Blanco
Song: Joe Garcia
Post Production Facility: Supermercado23
Post Production Facility: SoulMine
Hartford Advocate - Adam Bulger Cornelius harkens back to an earlier time in independent films, before modern quirk fests like Juno, Garden State and Little Miss Sunshine cluttered up art houses with bright colors, uplift and weepy college rock. It's closer to the late '80s and early '90s indie films, when independent films were entry ways into alienating, strange environments. It's not a perfect film, but its imperfections - it's a little overambitious in its editing and loose in its acting - are forgivable in light of its strengths. Though shot on video, the mostly black and white Cornelius has the spare visual poetry of a Jarmusch movie, the failure of communication of a Hartley film and something increasingly rare in indie fare: a non-white main character in an urban environment. Jason Williams - who, like Blanco, is a graduate of Hartford High School and a member of the musical group Spigga - stars as the title character, and his waist-length dreadlocks and mournful face are one of the first striking visual elements of the film. And the fact that such a large, imposing guy with such long dreadlocks remains so quiet throughout the film is another.
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Director
Giovanny Blanco
Thoughtful, moving, skillfully directed and beautifully acted.