Surviving Me: The Nine Circles of Sophie (2015) User Reviews

Even Dante wouldn't like Sophie

[ferguson-6 · 5/10 · 8 October 2015]

Greetings again from the darkness. A director's first feature film is often the most personal of their career, which always adds an element of interest. Leah Yananton writes, directs, produces and acts in this story that focuses on the self-discovery of a young woman who passes (loosely) through Dante's nine circles of Hell on her way to becoming a better person … or at least one quite apologetic for her previous self.

Most movies have a protagonist that we can root for, or at least relate to. Sophie (newcomer Christine Ryndak) is a poet-wannabe in her junior year of college. She is also whiny, needy, self-centered, and altogether unlikeable (to this viewer). Her feel for literature and poetry catches the attention of a married professor (Frederic Lehne), and we know immediately that this will get messy. Sophie inserts herself into the home life of Professor Slateman and Jacqueline (Mira Furlan), and her immaturity causes her to miss out on a real opportunity.

Instead of true relationships, Sophie pursues the professor while leading on Jimmy (Vincent Piazza, "Boardwalk Empire"), a fellow student who really likes her. She also uses and abuses her best friend Kiera (played by director Yananton), who is equally misguided, but much more self-aware. Equally frustrating is Sophie's treatment of Jacqueline, who initially takes a legitimate interest in Sophie's talent. Jacqueline is far and away the most intriguing character here, and a movie centered on her would have been significantly more interesting.

Dante's Inferno detailed the path to rejection of sin, and we follow Sophie through each circle … some are a bit of a stretch, but the effort is commendable. Her choices along the way can sometimes be chalked up to being a 20 year old, while others are simply inexcusable for anyone with a conscience. By the time Ms. Yananton's own version of "Ring of Fire" plays over the closing credits, we are relieved that our time with Sophie is over. Still, given that it's her first feature, we see enough good that we look forward to this filmmaker's next outing.

Sports a voice, lacks everything else...

[littlemankazoo · 2/10 · 9 October 2018]

The strongest thing I can attribute to Surviving Me: The 9 Circles of Sophie is that it most certainly has a voice behind its screenplay, directions and thoughts it intends to provoke. That voice is Leah Yanaton, and throughout her talk afterwards it was clear just how passionate she was for the art of film, poetry, and showing her vision. Through what she described as plenty of turmoil in her own life, multiple incidents of sexual assault and harassment included, her voice very clearly was injected-into the ideas and characters presented in Surviving Me, which certainly makes it a loud film and one with clear intentions.

All of that said...I cannot truly will myself to call it a good film, as it has so many issues riddling it that it ends up as a cinematic equivalent of a megaphone; the words and message is most certainly loud, but is it clear? Does it work cohesively as one thought or piece? In my mind, the answer is a less overwhelmingly-positive one.

Surviving Me is an independent production, very clearly, and thus many of the pitfalls of that fact come with it. The camerawork is rather iffy, at times coming off as something out of television. It has a quality of cheapness to it, which cannot be avoided when attributing its lower budget, so that is understood at the very least. That said, plenty of very cheap-looking independent films have transcended these budgetary constraints and excelled through its content. Its editing, its characters, etc etc.

The problem becomes, however, that the film also has issues in these regards just as well.

The editing is excruciatingly choppy at times, with certain particular points like the sex scenes becoming very difficult to keep track of or view due to the quick cutting and lack of cohesiveness. Certain continuity issues arise through these cuts, which only made the issues that much more glaring to me as an audience member and frustrated me because a good scene could certainly be assembled from what was filmed, but it simply didn't work for me.

The characters, aside from the eponymous Sophie herself, also feel very unfortunately underdeveloped. In fact, and I will be openly honest about this, I almost feel that all of Yanaton's characters here are treated as sex objects without self-awareness. Leah Yanaton's talk regarding her dismay at seeing women turned-into sex objects in the early 21st century was an argument and viewpoint I certainly sympathized with and agreed with...but on that very same token, I found it contradictory to hear that viewpoint so stressed after seeing a piece in which a young adult male is treated as a bumbling male companion that is appreciated but criticized for his lack of sexual prowess and a young adult female who's only truly memorable character trait was her sexually-active lifestyle and constant references to sex.

Perhaps this was part of Yanaton's point? Perhaps it was an intentional decision in the writing stage to display the excess and over-fixation of society on the sexual lifestyle and Sophie's losing of herself into the very same cultural obsession...but for myself at least, I did not find that idea stressed enough for the excess and lack of character for these two examples to be enough to forgive it as artistic direction. It struck me as shallow character writing, and frankly, contradictory to the intended message of the film regarding the objectification of female and male bodies. I am not bothered in the slightest by an abundance of sexual activity in a film, even when you make it a central point of a character's personality, but when it comes at the expense of character and contrasts with your film's message...lines become fuzzy, messages become lost, and my intrigue becomes confusion and skepticism.

As I said before, I think Yanaton has a very clear vision and a very loud voice. This film was clearly from the bottom of her heart, and she seemed like a fantastic woman and a passionate screenwriter. However, I think what hurts this film most in my mind is the confusing, mixed messages it sends across. Much as I can hear what the intention was from Leah after the film is over...the message itself gets lost amidst confusing editing, weak characters, and cinematic values that are rather concerning and contradictory to the film's intended meaning.

A strong voice and extremely good intentions, but a very messy and unfortunately confusing piece in the end...