Punched After the Fact, showing July 15th at Portland’s Cinema 21, establishes that it will be keeping it slightly weird early on. Davie (Donny Persons) sweeps an empty basement in an institutional orange jumpsuit. He dances as he sweeps, trying Gene Kelly moves and playing broom guitar while duckwalking. He’s in the moment and inventing joy.
At home, Davie’s teenage son (Ahmed Toney) is very online. His ex-partner Annie (Anne Zander) lies in bed, depressed. This is the routine: Work, exchange a few words at home, repeat.
This is when the plot kicks in, with a home invasion in the place of a typical Meet Cute. Haley (“like the comet”, played by Nikki Flynn), accepts some pizza from Davie while they discuss social expectations and etiquette for such an occasion. She’s gone after making a big impression.
The first act also introduces us to Tanner (Eric Martin Reid), a screenwriter who can’t get his material read. When a fresh-faced coworker’s silly script sells for a pile of cash, Tanner can’t muster sincere congratulations, only scorn. He starts looking for an A-list actor to read one of his scenes.
We get another Davie dance in the second act, on an ivy-bordered staircase at the magic hour. It’s a happy inversion of whatever Joaquin Phoenix was doing in The Joker. Davie just amble-zenned his way into a club; a flyer says Haley performs there. He suits up in prep for a second Meet Weird.
Haley not only performs, she’s a performance artist, whose commitment to absurd bits is infectious. In one show, she’s a crow whose CAW-CAW-CAWs get a call-and-response going. It’s a cacophony, but Davie’s in the audience, and Meet Weird 2 is on. Tanner’s in the audience too.
The tone shifts in the final act, as Davie, Tanner, and Haley’s stories intersect. A few minutes of menace let Reid and Flynn chew the scenery, with Davie showing up both at the perfect time and just after the fact.
Punched After the Fact is a love letter to Portland, with scenes filmed in multiple locations in the northwest and close-in eastside. Characters cross paths in local watering holes and take night-time strolls underneath sepia-lit freeways. They’re all connected to L.A. and Hollywood and the open road, but those places don’t exert the same type of draw.
An interview with writer-directors Ian Fowler and Gabriel Lakey: