What Happened Was...
This week, for the first time on a Sunday and the last time in 2024, the >From Below Microcinema presents What Happened Was...(1994) on Sunday, December 29, at 7 pm.
Here is the link to reserve a seat. Doors will be at 6:50 and we’re starting the movie at 7:10!
It’s winter break from work and school, which means we’re taking the chance to cram in an extra screening of another overlooked gem.
Character actor Tom Noonan (you might recognize his lanky 6’ 5’’ frame from *Manhunter *(1986), *Robocop 2 *(1990), or the X-Files), writes, directs and stars opposite Karen Sillas in this minimalist rom-com, perhaps more aptly an anti-rom-com, about a painfully awkward and strange first date between two coworkers.
*What Happened Was… *is a simple film that spins a tale of mundane agony and desire out of little gestures and dialogue into an infernal climax. It’s a worthwhile treatise on the wish for recognition from another, power, loneliness, and the struggle to lead a free and creative life. The film’s origins as a play come through; Noonan and Sillas work together well as actors to make a tense, funny, uncomfortable, poignant piece out of this stripped down, single-setting story. For fans of *Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), Tape (2001), *or the *Before *trilogy!