It’s rare to be able to say that a movie shows a side of New York you’ve never seen before, but “Topside” does just that. A subterranean drama whose first act is set below the city, where a downtro…
resides somewhere between “Dark Days” and “Leave No Trace” without feeling as familiar as its premise might suggest. That’s thanks not only to Held, who pulls double duty both in front of and behind the camera, but also to a moving performance by newcomer Zhalia Farmer that’s reminiscent of Quevanzané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
“Stars don’t come down this far,” Nikki tells her five-year-old daughter Little one night in their makeshift hovel. They’re eating peanut butter straight from the jar, mom stifling a cough from breathing in who knows what all day, and though their existence is meager it would appear to beat the alternative of emerging from the depths and entering society proper.
The film arrives in theaters two years after starting its run on the festival circuit, “premiering” at the canceled South by Southwest and eventually making its way to Venice. In certain respects it’s just the kind of movie you’d hope to see in that setting: With no reputation preceding it, “Topside” is a pleasant, unassuming surprise that makes you feel as though you’ve discovered new talent.
Stars may not reach down this far, but Nikki still allows her daughter flights of fancy — literally, in the case of telling Little that sooner or later she’ll sprout wings. It’s the kind of throughline that runs the risk of being eye-rolling in its wistfulness, but here too Held and George exhibit restraint.
Held and Farmer have natural onscreen chemistry, bringing an almost docudrama realism to their characters’ shared fate even as it teeters on tragedy. What ultimately keeps them — and “Topside” itself — afloat is a bond that, while far from impervious to the uncaring world around them, you spend the entire runtime hoping is deep enough to endure it.
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