Directed by Nathan Sutton
Written by Nathan Sutton, Elisha Renee Sutton (aka Elisha Skorman)
Starring Elisha Renee Sutton, Timothy V. Murphy, Neil Jackson
MPAA Rating R or NR
Runtime: 88 minutes
In select theaters December 15

by Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer

Filmed in arty black and white, cowriter/director Nathan Sutton’s drama, New Year, feels too much like a play for its own good. It is set one location—a house in Los Angeles—and has a handful of characters coming together for a New Year’s Eve party to “strip away their masks,” reveal “unfiltered truths” and “experience vulnerability.” Although there is some fluid camerawork (courtesy of Michael Lockridge), and a jazzy score (by Graham Reynold), and a game cast, this stagy film never quite sparks to life.

New Year opens with Ben (Timothy V. Murphy), a playwright and his wife, Kat (Elisha Renee Sutton, who cowrote the film with her husband) preparing to have guests over to their home. The couple is moving to New York in a few days with Kat’s young son Micah (T.K. Weaver), whose father is Cameron (Neil Jackson). The guests soon arrive. First is Julian (Kyle Mac), a filmmaker whose documentary about Ben’s famous play never saw the light of day. Cameron arrives next with his young girlfriend Meegan (Raven Scott), an actress, in tow. This causes Kat to have a brief fit of jealousy. Eventually Joseph (Nelson Lee), an actor and his agent Willa (Gillian Shure) turn up. 

The conversations in the first hour of the talky New Year help sketch out the characters, who are pretty superficial. They are artist types who initially chat about celebrity and fame. A discussion about earthquakes (cue theme of instability and uncertainty as well as a school presentation by Micah) segues into a debate about guns. Ben keeps a revolver in the house and Kat and Cameron vehemently object to the news that Ben has taught Micah how to shoot. Of course, this chatter is a plant that will lead to the gun being drawn by the end of the play—er, film. Meanwhile, Meegan encourages positivity and talks about her vision board, but this concept does not go over well with the more cynical attendees. 

The one-on-one conversations are better. Julian and Meegan talk about failure and dreams; Cameron and Kat chew over the move and co-parenting their son; Julian and Kat connect after she has a fight with Ben. These scenes provide an opportunity for the characters to express themselves clearly, and they are much better than Willa’s speech about a sexual encounter with a messy woman, or some of the other gasbagging. A subplot about why Julian’s documentary was never released hints at something sinister, but it is vaguely realized and ultimately lacks impact.

New Year does feature a nice sequence where the characters all dance together and the drama eventually culminates with everyone (save Micah) reluctantly playing Ben’s shit-stirring game called, “I Love You, I Hate You.” Each character must speak a painful truth to someone and then compliment them. While this last act is compelling, little that is said is particularly surprising. The reveals mostly confirm everything viewers already know about the characters— as when the individual who has been drinking all night is called out for being a drunk or another who has been rude and self-absorbed is called a four-letter word. When the aforementioned gun is finally pulled, it fails to create any real tension. 

This chamber drama might have been stronger if the cast had been better actors. Most of the performances fall flat, most notably Elisha Renee Sutton’s. She plays Kat as mysterious—as if to suggest her character having greater, unseen depth—but she spits out her dialogue without energy or conviction. When she fights with Ben it feels forced; when a character hits on her, her reaction, “What the fuck are you doing,” is empty. The male characters all lack charisma. This works in favor of Kyle Mac’s loser, Julian, but the other men—Timothy V. Murphy, Nelson Lee, and Neil Jackson—all come off as lackluster. These guys don’t need to be likable, (and most of them are not), but they do need to be relatable. The best acting is by Raven Scott, who plays Meegan with the right about of strength and fragility, and Gillian Shure whose swaggers her way through the film emoting as much as she can, as when she hoovers up some cocaine in one awkward scene.

New Year fails to provide much insight about the people it presents. It does not encourage viewers to want to spend much time with them.