Tribeca 2024: Calvin Lee Reeder’s The A-Frame Fails To Commit To Its Genres
Desperation is a killer, whether for yourself or others. It can drive you to extreme lengths when there's no clear path forward. This is the concept explored in Calvin Lee Reeder’s feature The A-Frame, which premiered at Tribeca Festival. Though the film attempts to settle into the sci-fi, horror, and comedy genres, it never fully commits to either theme.
We meet pianist Donna (Dana Namerode) at the lowest point in her life after finding out she has bone cancer, leaving her with two options: amputation or a miracle. As a musician, it is clear that she is struggling to accept the potential loss of her hands, so she is hoping for anything to help her. As she grapples with the depression and despair of losing her life's passion, she is approached by Sam (Johnny Whitworth), a shady underground scientist who seems to know a little too much about her case. No worries, he just hacked into the hospital's database — not weird at all, right? He believes he accidentally cured cancer in his research for quantum physics. Now you're wondering what quantum physics has to do with cancer? Nothing, and that’s kind of the point. This is his miracle cure and now he's in search of someone desperate enough to take medical advice from the creepy stalker man lingering at the oncologist. He chooses Donna because no one is more desperate than a young girl about to lose her hand. She doesn’t take him up on his offer right away, showing a good amount of caution, but later that night she finds herself at his dark, undercover lab searching for the impossible.
Despite his field being far removed from medicine, he offers her a chance to keep her hands through his experimental human trials. Sam suggests that by sending her hand to another dimension, it can return cancer-free. Desperate and with nothing to lose, she takes the risk, because, well, what’s the worst that can happen? She loses her hand? But, to her and my surprise, it works! Her scans are clean and her cancer appears to be gone, but she must keep her miracle cure a secret, living as a cancer survivor whose illness mysteriously vanished. Meanwhile, Sam is looking for more ways to further his research and becomes determined to push for further human trials, which is when things spiral out of control.
Despite a compelling plot setup and almost convincing dialogue, the film fails to fully explore the world of science fiction. The dialogue attempts to cover what we can’t see, but, without the visuals, the film seems unfinished. We never get to see the multidimensional world Sam is telling us exists, nor do we see how his machines are used to transport the characters into the quantum universe. The truth is Sam's ideas never truly expand beyond his initial findings, missing opportunities to delve into a multidimensional world and simply using it as a lame explanation.
And the disappointment doesn’t stop there. His creepy basement and invasive tendencies add an unsettling atmosphere, but the film lacks a commitment to the horror genre. The gore and body remnants don't effectively convey the scare factor. I was waiting for a jump scare or something totally unexpected, but it never comes. Instead, it's the choppy cinematography, low lighting, and constant movement that build tension, but still does nothing to convince me I am watching a horror movie.
However, certain plot points do well. Reeder handles the cancer storyline with care and attention, portraying Donna's journey authentically. Donna's cancer support group, which focuses on acceptance rather than hope, forces Donna to confront her reality, a painful but necessary step before her miraculous "cure." But being that this wasn’t intended to be a motivational story, this five-minute element isn’t enough to convince me this film knows where it’s heading. There’s also Donna’s friend and sometimes lover Rishi (Nik Dodani), who provides comic relief, using his own tragedy as punchlines. Dodani’s on-screen presence adds excitement to the film, but I was hoping for the comedy to be embedded throughout rather than breadcrumbed around, giving us scraps.
Though there is a clear beginning, the film seems to struggle to embed each element it promises in a satisfying way. From comedy to sci-fi to horror, none of these genres find their way throughout the film. Ultimately, The A-Frame is a decent film that renders itself forgettable due to its failure to commit. There's nothing truly memorable in the storyline, characters, or themes. While the film keeps you on edge, it’s also misleading, leaving you questioning what you watched and its intended message.
