Philly Abe cannot quite figure out why she feels more self-reflective and contemplative when she is in a bathtub completely naked on “Flying Lessons,” but I bet she wouldn’t have it any other way. A Lower East Side veteran from back when artists were actually transgressive, an actor in films by avant garde directors like George Kuchar and Todd Verow, Philly has been fearless about baring everything body and soul for the camera, and in Elizabeth Nichols’ affectionate portrait of the iconoclast, she becomes a representative of an entire mode of being that seems poised to vanish entirely.
The initial image we get of cultural eradication couldn’t be more literal: Nichols finds Philly after she’s just been served with an eviction notice along with several other tenants by a shady new landlord, in one of those buildings where rent-controlled apartments go for nowhere near their value on the open market. With her bright red hair and equally fiery temper, it’s easy to see why people are drawn to rally around Philly at public hearings “I’m very succinct and possibly nasty,” she allows but her commitment to community goes deeper than mere pugnacity, both as a neighbor and as a fixture on the arts scene.
Her old single reel movies are intercut with her present life, serving as memories of who she was but also perhaps dreams of who she’d like to be now if the world didn’t seem so intent on becoming uniform. When a civil suit against Steve Croman, the real estate magnate responsible for criminally harassing his oldest tenants through illegal means such as baseless eviction suits and dangerous construction work, begins moving through the legal system, Nichols doesn’t bother going into much detail about the case Philly Abe’s resistance to all things can be demonstrated via other methods (i.e., glimpses at her punk rock history).
But that’s not even what this movie is about. When Philly Abe calls herself a bird, though of different feathers at different points in her life, “Flying Lessons” becomes the story of a person who has always preferred to live with her head in the clouds and who too often gets yanked back down to earth especially now that she’s growing older and not only facing displacement from her apartment but also starting to lose control over her bodily functions.
Born out of a self-made environment that gave New York City such a strong personality, Nichols doesn’t so much watch her get tamed by time as see the world drain color around her, as millennials play meaningless sports in the street and the rawness of emotions presented in old films is at odds with the polished era she currently inhabits.
The director, who made this movie after living next door to Philly Abed in the same building for years without saying anything about it until they were both moving out, is careful to construct something that is aesthetically beautiful but not without its rough edges envisioning grace where others might see thorns when it comes to her subject matter and whether or not she has to relocate, “Flying Lessons” demonstrates what an integral part of any community she truly is.
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