In New York City, there’s nothing more precious than a working air conditioner on a sweltering summer day. Simon Hacker’s father-daughter comedy “Notice to Quit” understands this well. That’s why real estate agents chasing you on those awful, horrible, no-good, very bad days keep coming back to the rich promises that AC units can offer. The hacker’s frenetic film, which takes place in all five boroughs of the city, mirrors his mentors the Safdie brothers, but ultimately ends up doing exactly what the AC unit helps alleviate. I get frustrated.
Andy Singer (played by “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” actor Michael Zegen) is at a loss. His dream of becoming an actor led to an advertising campaign for toothpaste that made him recognizable to people all over the city. His job as a real estate broker soon finds himself presenting increasingly dire prospects for renters fleeing before him. And his side hustle, supplying working appliances from said units to shady resellers, turns out to be made increasingly difficult due to the unacceptable apartment his boss keeps tying him down to. Oh, and he’s currently being evicted for not paying rent. That day, her estranged 10-year-old daughter showed up unexpectedly to let her mother know she was moving to Orlando.
In a nostalgic touch, Andy spilled coffee on his shirt to start the day. This is a detail that makes the point a little too difficult, despite having a “notice to quit” method in place. Please continually ask us to extend a modicum of sympathy to the sad grief of a estranged father whose actions may not be fully deserved. So Andy’s day wandering around town with his precocious daughter Anna (a wide-eyed Casey Vera Suarez) becomes, if not remarkable growth, then a sweaty exercise in reluctant redemption. .
The premise is that a father and daughter spend the day unknowingly bonding as they try to rebuild their lives despite himself and his many unfortunate decisions. , it might have been excruciatingly painful if we hadn’t been so engrossed in the wheel chair games and deals. The world of two-bit real estate agents, or a city as oppressive as this. Thanks to Mika Artzkan’s uncomfortably intimate handheld cinematography, “Notice to Quit” feels like it’s designed to squeak through every corner of New York, from subway chairs to sidewalk benches. . Still, there’s a sense that Andy and Anna’s day is unnecessarily organized, even amidst the messy situations they always find themselves in. It’s a dirty city, and it’s a dirty city, but there’s a strangely sanitized vision of the central character that the film can’t escape.
This Broker character feels like he was specifically created to stand in for some of the most arcane and infuriating schemes people are deceived every day in New York City. Andy’s ex-wife chimes in: “Putting gel in your hair and lying to people doesn’t count as work.” “I’m using Mousse,” Andy shot back in one of Zegen’s signature winking, self-deprecating gestures. This was meant to show how aware Andy was of the many scams and conspiracies that had kept him afloat.
But Hacker and Zegen cannot fully commit to seeing Andy in that light. If he had been treated better, he would have been a better person and, in fact, a better father. His agency is fully permitted in all situations. Even when his daughter admonishes him for using a cockroach to get away with paying for the diner (and possibly endangering the cook’s job at the diner), Andy brushes it off with requisite indifference. I ignored it. “It was an opportunity, not a crime.”
The movie makes it clear that it knows Andy’s flutter is part of his now failing stupidity. But that doesn’t make the 90 minutes we spend hoping he’ll be a more caring father and a more honest broker (perhaps an oxymoron) any easier. It would be helpful if Zegen and Suarez showed more chemistry. Rather, their formal on-screen friendship adds nothing to the film, especially as Andy and Anna gradually begin to get along.
With a premise all too well attuned to its distinctly lived-in sense of place, “Notice to Quit” feels like the pilot for the Safdie brothers’ amiable sitcom set in New York City (and if Andy wants (Very important) Keep all your fingers! ). But (mostly) omitting the former’s moody shenanigans and the latter’s anxiety-inducing stunts, the hacker film never quite finds its groove, with its snappy running time and nimble Despite the plot, it ultimately overstays its welcome.
