Dwight (Patrick Fugit- ‘Almost Famous’), and his sister Jessie (Ingrid Sophie Schram- ‘Phantom Thread’) care for their sickly little brother Thomas (a sympathetic Owen Campbell- ‘The miseducation of Cameron Post’) who needs human blood to survive his mysterious ailment. The tormented Dwight is tasked with finding fresh sources for blood, while Jessie ruthlessly fights to hold the family together, no matter the cost.
Ingrid Sophie Schram as Jessie and Owen Campbell as Thomas
This is a story about isolation, marginalization, and the deepest loneliness. It gives a new meaning to the term Blood Ties. Interestingly the film was also created by three siblings: Jonathan Cuartas, wrote and directed, his brother Michael Cuartas, the Cinematographer, captured the images with a brutal honesty and a muted palette and Rodrigo Cuartas is the Production Designer, who created the dark, but believable world that they inhabit. The images speak for themselves. There is an unmelodramatic tone, and a simplicity with the painful silences punctured by the eerie and atmospheric original score of Andrew Rease Shaw.
In this award-winning opera prima, Cuartas has expanded the themes he presented in his earlier, (also award-winning) short, KURU (2017) about a man who yearns to escape his familial obligation of murdering strangers to feed his crippled cannibalistic brother. In “My Heart can only Beat when you tell it to” Cuartas has added Jessie, a sister, but the claustrophobic pressures, the horrors of being trapped in a secret life no one can share, isolated and weighted down with guilt and the overwhelming feeling of obligation, is still present.
Patrick Fugit as Dwight
Dwight dreams of escaping his prison, yearning to go to Miami beach and see the sea as it represents freedom for him. But there is no leeway here, not even dreams are allowed in this closed world, Jessie sees to that! Dwight reluctantly prowls the streets at night, searching for the lonely and the vulnerable that will not be missed. He hates it, but without fresh blood Thomas cannot survive.
Patrick Fugit ( Dwight) Jessie ( Ingrid Sophie Schram) and Thomas ( Owen Campbell)
The story is profound and the performances elicit sympathy and empathy by the bucketful. It echoes families struggling with inter-dependency, and the desolation of addictions. As Jesse says to Thomas: “Do you have any idea what we do to get that blood?" Meanwhile, Thomas, almost childlike and innocent, just wants to have friends. His moment of joy is short-lived, there is no room for joy in that household. Trapped in an endless murderous cycle with no end- Jessie is ruthless in her sense of duty to her little brother, being meticulous in not losing a drop of the precious life-saving blood. Despite their efforts, the ailing Thomas seems to get weaker by the day, instead of being revived. He refuses to accept he can’t be normal. They feed him but loneliness eats away at his soul every day. He hears children playing but cannot leave the boarded house and the darkness within, and there is no one to play with at 3 AM. This is all very timely… Cuartas has uncovered a horrible metaphor to a situation that so many have had to live with through this pandemic.
Jessie bonds them tighter as Dwight staggers through the haze, trying to do the right thing by his sibling. Life has been lost a long time ago in this home. It’s an impossible situation with no solution and they all know it – but Jessie continues to prod Dwight to look for victims, while she does the bleeding. Dwight cannot watch, but it is he who has to look the live victims in the eye and make the decisions. She’s handed a corpse. When Dwight stumbles, she has to choose a different path, further destroying Dwight’s reasons to live.
All three performances are chilling, excellent, downplayed and subtle. There is almost no dialogue as the deeply engrained sickness in the family slowly destroys them. The symbiosis is penetrating, suffocating and ultimately toxic. The siblings make terrible choices and sacrifice more and more of themselves – how much will they sacrifice for their loved one to survive?
Thomas (Owen Campbell) and Jessie ( Ingrid Sophie Schram)
Cuartas has cleverly developed a new take on the vampire movie, as far from the Hammer Horror films as you can get, and the result is profoundly moving and sad. It is an allegory of sibling relationships and expectations. This film is subtle, intelligent and all the more powerful for it. The shocks are less physical ‘frights’ than a more real and psychological horror, that takes over like a virus. All for one and one for all in a very dark place.
‘MY HEART CAN ONLY BEAT WHEN YOU TELL IT TO’ is Coming to Digital June 28th 2021.
#MyHeartCantBeatMovie / @heartcantbeat
Written and Directed by Jonathan Cuartas / Production: Patrick Fugit/ Anthony Pedone / Jesse R Brown / DOP: Michael Cuartas / Editor:T J Nelson /Original Music:Andrew Rease Shaw /Prod DesignRodrigo Cuartas / Company:Dualist/ Film Exchange/ Distributors: Lightbulb Film Distribution 2020
Cast: Patrick Fugit as Dwight/ Ingrid Sophie Schram as Jessie/ Owen Campbell as Thomas/ Moises Tovar as Eduardo / Judah Bateman as Turner.
