Indie Memphis Review – My Effortless Brilliance

In March, after seeing the movie, I had said that the only opportunity Oxonians will have to see My Effortless Brilliance is when Director Lynn Shelton gets it out to a distributor for us to be able to rent it but I was wrong. This weekend you can check out this fantastic film at Indie Memphis at 4pm on Saturday.

After seeing a few of this year’s mumblecoresque films, My Effortless Brilliance rose to the top as my favorite not only for its intimate look at the demise and rebuilding of a friendship between two men but the fact that their was no script. The entire movie is brilliantly improved by the actors Sean Nelson and Basil Harris. 

Sean Nelson plays Erik, a fascinatingly over-the-top selfish writer who can’t seem to match his success from his first book and is now sliding into oblivion. The worst thing is he is completely unaware of his impact on his friends. His friend Dylan (Basil Harris), can’t take it anymore and “dumps” him and then moves to the country. 

Line from movie:

Dylan: I think you’re a terrible friend. You’re an asshole and a really terrible friend

This is why Dylan fascinates me in this movie Really, haven’t we all wanted to be brave enough at some point to tell a not-so-great friend to go away? I can think of a few that this would be a be lovely line to use. 

Disturbed by the loss of Dylan, Erik trails after him to his new life and tries desperately to find a way to blend in with this new life and Dylan’s new best friend. The majority of the film focuses on this non-scripted awkward moment where the friendship begins to slowly rebuild but not after much rebuffing from Dylan. Erik, for whatever reason, holds on even after Dylan makes it very clear he is not welcome. 

The subtle story made more of an impact on me because of the fact that director Lynn Shelton seemed to have a knack for capturing this strained relationship between two men and Erik’s self-indulgent behavior that eventually is redeemed.