Opening with a line from The Night of the Hunter really sets the tone for your movie. It isn’t going to be a happy one. Low Down is not a happy movie, but it is haunting, like a song that lets its notes linger in the air. Its small-scale human tragedies come across so often, it becomes a narrative melody. You expect the next note to drop to the pit of your stomach, bracing for the next turn of events. It’s the mid-70s, and Amy (Elle Fanning) is watching out a window for her father when he is taken by two men. Joe Albany (John Hawkes) is an accomplished jazz pianist struggling to kick a crippling drug habit. Stints in jail are not uncommon. Her mother, also an addict, stumbles in and out of Amy’s life with little notice. Life is once again on the move after Joe’s arrest, and despite Joe’s mother (Glenn Close) stepping in to help, there is almost no solace for the young teen adrift between music, drugs, and desperation. There’s very little light outside Amy’s window.
Hawkes and Fanning make an unlikely dynamic duo, playing on chummy Paper Moon feelings and resentful generational mood swings. Amy longs for a parent, a role Joe cannot play because of his addiction and rap sheet. Their frayed relationship is the only thing left for her to hold onto. We want the pair to make it and stay together, but what’s really best for Amy? As Joe’s mother, Close is devastating trying to maintain order in a chaotic world. She scolds Joe and readily scolds Amy when she yells at her father.
Low Down offers some respite with the extra characters wandering the halls of the Albany’s sketchy apartment. Peter Dinklage’s cameo is not only a treat for “Game of Thrones” fans, but for the movie as well. His forlorn squatter befriends a wondering Amy before her life is uprooted once more. Taryn Manning of “Orange is the New Black” makes an appearance as a strung-out mother, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea appears as a fellow musician. None of them last very long as supporting characters, but that adds to the movie’s drifting tone.
With so many faces in and out of the frame, we feel as unsettled as Amy. Friends don’t last long in her peripheral view. Eventually, even her father disappears for a time, chasing music and drugs in Europe. Her boyfriend isn’t a sure bet either, as he seems reckless in handling his epilepsy. The temptation to fall into drugs like her parents is ever-present. It’s heartbreaking to watch Amy play with a hypodermic needle and reason her suffering enough to succumb.
Director Jeff Preiss is not only graced with a great cast for his movie, but with a wonderful cinematographer in Christopher Blauvelt (The Bling Ring, Night Moves). The style now is to age films to their eras, meaning the 1970s feel slightly desaturated like a faded photo. Blauvelt is careful to not cheapen his look like an Instagram filter, but rather creating the illusion of a faded memory. The dingy and unpleasantness look suffocates the viewer; you want to get out of this world as badly as Amy does.
Unlike many biopics about musicians, Low Down is told from the perspective of the musician’s child. Based on Amy Albany’s memoir, it’s a frustrated portrait of a revered figure. Amy still loves her father, despite his shortcomings and struggles, and that comes across in the film. If there’s a silver lining to every story, Amy’s is her survival to tell her story and her father’s.
