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love is everything:

god's waiting room

​ ​movie review
​
​by carson timar


(tribeca 2021)

​
Picture


God's Waiting Room (2021)

          Streaming as part of the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, Tyler Riggs's directorial debut God's Waiting Room is a casual meditation on turbulence within life and the power within love that might just be one of the most intimate films of the festival so far. Finding a stylistic identity somewhere between Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life and Trey Edward Shults's Waves; God's Waiting Room is a thoughtful capturing of the lives of three young adults finding their paths towards happiness in central Florida. 

As with the majority of films, the slower and more methodical approach to storytelling that God's Waiting Room uses - which is dangerously becoming more and more common in the space of independent cinema - there is an inherent danger to the style that threatens to alienate and bore audiences. Capturing everyday life in a more mundane style requires an incredibly specific sense of craft and personality in order to hook audiences and not lose them as on paper long stretches between events can occur. God's Waiting Room does a rather fantastic job at hooking the audience who already is willing to buy into this style. The humanity and passion feel seductive and poignant, causing the audience to empathize and connect with the characters featured and their world. This allows a personal connection to form between the film and the audience that will allow the audience to care and engage with the film on a deeper level.

The biggest disappointment within the film however is how little it ends up accomplishing even with this hook. God's Waiting Room has the audience listening but ultimately says almost nothing new or really even that worthwhile. It is a film defined by its vibes and feelings but never goes deeper than that. Even a project such as Waves which has faced criticism for similar problems has a clear backbone regarding the circular nature of toxicity specifically within the scope of masculinity. This is something substantial that audiences can take away from the film and chew on after the runtime ends, also justifying the couple of hours spent watching the film and the money spent on a ticket. God's Waiting Room starts to build on various meaningful ideas but never flushes any out to the same level to where it really could be seen as a meaningful takeaway.

As mentioned, this especially feels like a shame considering the overall filmmaking quality is so good. The cinematography from Mack Fisher is gorgeous and directing from Tyler Riggs is confident. The performances are also quite solid. Thoughtful and honest, individuals like Nisalda Gonzalez and Ray Benitez really do impress and clearly are capable at portraying larger ideas and feelings, but sadly it just doesn't feel like they are given enough to chew on to really reach their full potential.

If there is one redeeming factor for the film it is that it is the feature debut for Tyler Riggs both as a director and screenwriter. This is an ambitious and complex feature but at the very least every piece of it feels competent. Every piece of the film - even the bits that underwhelm - show clear potential and with more experience, it is entirely plausible that this crew will be able to branch out and evolve into something special.

Overall Grade-B

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