movie review 41

Family and friends of Nicky O'Neill Christian de Rezendes NR 117 Mins. NEHST Out

is about the youngest of the victims of the devastating fire aspiring musician Nicky O'Neill. Reminiscent of Kurt Kuenne's outstanding documentary is a breathtaking and often inspirational film that captures a life seemingly lived out on film from Nicky's youngest days. A collaboration between Rhode Island filmmaker Christian de Rezendes and Nicky's elder brother, Christian O'Neill, utilizes an abundance of family video footage, photographs, news clips and interviews with Nicky's friends and peers to paint a balanced yet poignant portrait of a young man simultaneously misunderstood, celebrated and deeply loved. is a profoundly moving documenting of the fullness that was, and in many ways remains, the life of Nicky O'Neill. Nicky lived his life with an exuberance and originality not always embraced in his small Rhode Island town, but his lifelong impact on his family and friends is undeniable and honestly reveals both sides of the young man - Nicky was, at times, labeled a problem student and once received a grade of F- in an English class ... He received permission from school administrators to drop out of school, and ... Despite possessing unquestionable talent, Nicky's reliability in actually showing up was often questioned .  Yet, there was the side of Nicky that seemingly captivated everyone he encountered. Nicky was known for his extraordinary compassion, especially with those who had experienced personal tragedies. Despite having received an F- in an English class, Nicky was an extraordinary songwriter and, as would be evidenced posthumously, a promising playwright. Nicky seemed to have a positive influence upon all those who surround him, most of whom recall him as intelligent, caring, funny and immensely talented. As a mere elegy for Nicky O'Neill, would be an exceptional documentary. Yet, far transcends simply being a memorial and, as well, simply being a documentary by examining the world of Nicky after he has, at least physically, left his earthly existence. It is in the film's second half that de Rezendes and O'Neill begin revealing Nicky's mysterious connection to the number 41, along with the number's strange and increasingly dominant presence in the lives of those who've survived Nicky. It all began shortly after the fire and, in fact, even before Nicky's body had been found when his father received a phone call from his son's cell phone. It was in that moment that his father knew that his son's body would be found later that day, and he believed that, perhaps, the cell phone ringing was merely rescuers having found the phone and checking it for identifiers. When Nicky was finally found, his only personal possession found was his cell phone ... destroyed beyond possible use due to water damage in the fire. These types of mysterious "coincidences" have continued for Nicky's family and friends, many of which will be dismissed by naysayers but their abundance and significance are compellingly constructed in De Rezendes became involved with this story rather indirectly when he received the opportunity to film marking the tragedy's one-year anniversary and the discovery of a rather profound and prophetic one-act play penned by Nicky shortly before his death called a play about intolerance incorporating a tremendous amount of spiritual and social themes. Originally intended as a short film, de Rezendes' lengthy involvement in the project eventually led to becoming a full-length feature documentary due to the abundance and depth of the material discovered. It is brought powerfully and unforgettably to life, mostly owing to the vulnerability of Christian O'Neill and the ability of de Rezendes to capture his interview subjects in a way that is relaxed and authentic. De Rezendes and O'Neill perfectly intertwine the film's utilization of video footage with news footage and, as well, with interviews that never appear dry nor rote. is now available on DVD. For more information on visit the website.

I continue to go down this hole. This multiverse, time-travel hole. And I blame the algorithm. You watch one sci-fi adjacent thing and you end up getting suggested movies like 41 . Which, frankly, I thought was a movie about Jackie Robinson. But, apparently, that’s called 42 . I can’t say I’m a fan of numbers-only-based titles like these. Especially when there’s no real significance to the number other than it’s the number on the hotel room in which this time-travel wormhole exists. At least with 42 , that’s Robinson’s uniform number. Or like the movie 10 refers to a scale of one to ten that everyone who has ever rated another human being understands. Which isn’t forgiving that practice, of course, but is giving it context.

Seemingly random title aside, the film itself clearly was trying something high-concept and relatively ambitious. It’s clear they watched the movie Primer , but decided that all the math and science stuff was for suckers. So they stripped all of that away and just kind of kept the core time-travel spine. Ostensibly a love story, our protagonist, Aidan, uses a hole in an Australian motel room floor to travel back in time twelve hours with each entry. Yes, literally a hole in a motel room floor. No time machine, no mystical time portal put there by an ancient civilization or alien culture. Nope, just an empty space in a crumby motel under a flap of cheap linoleum that definitely seems like it would be discovered by just about anyone sitting on the toilet in that room. But somehow isn’t. Because this film doesn’t bother with details like that. It’s super low-budget, and at times you feel every dollar not spent on it.

Going back to the concept, it feels like a couple students got into a dorm room and decided they wanted to make a time-travel movie. Then they did a little research, figured out they were going to settle on a certain theory and only then figured out the skin to put on it. And, yes, there’s nothing wrong with the theory here — basically every time the dude, Aidan, goes into the floor he appears in a new timeline twelve hours in the past. Not the same timeline he left from, but a brand new one. So if he’s in timeline/universe one and enters the hole, he can’t affect that same timeline/universe because he pops out in timeline/universe two. So his girlfriend he’s trying to save in timeline/universe one is unsavable. But his girlfriend in timeline/universe two could theoretically be saved if he prevents her death in timeline/universe two having gone back before her time of death. Timeline/universe one girlfriend will always die. As timeline/universe one Aidan continually jumps in the hole to travel from timeline/universe to timeline/universe to try to change future of a continuously alt version of his girlfriend. But that’s truly it. We don’t get much else other than this mechanic. The plot is the mechanism of the time travel. But, of course, at this point we’ve seen enough time-travel movies that we need something unique and surprising to build out the flesh of the narrative. It would be like making a war movie and us just getting a bunch of dudes running around a jungle shooting each other. Sure, it’s a war movie, but what is it I’m supposed to care about?

Ultimately this isn’t a bad movie. It’s just one that was missing something. Heart? Soul? Something that could have been fleshed out with a million bucks? Honestly, I’m not certain, as we’ll never get that version of the movie. And what we have feels like it’s missing something. A reason for being beyond what someone thought was a fun concept — and what someone thought they could pull off on a minuscule budget. So, yeah, it was fine for what it was. I suppose if you’re really into that DIY aesthetic, don’t mind some of the seams showing in your films and are a true everything-for-the-multiverse person, it could be worth 80 minutes of your time on a bus or plane. And may honestly be better on a smaller screen anyway.

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Directed by Glenn Triggs

Time travels with you

A young man discovers a hole in the floor of a local motel that leads to yesterday.

Chris Gibson Dafna Kronental David Macrae Shane Lee Keith Gordon Nick Antoniades Menik Gooneratne Glen Hancox Robert Plazek Warwick Leeson Matt Young Lauren Wade Anne Cordiner Toby Pierpoint Peter Bright Bethia de Groot Gordon Boyd Stephanie Lillis Jessica Miller Elliot Cyngler Rose Lewis Zachary Hare Clara Francesca Pagone Charlotte McDonald Alan Jacobs Don Bridges

Director Director

Glenn Triggs

Producers Producers

Fiona Eloise Bulle Glenn Triggs

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Glenn Triggs Stephanie Lillis Bethia de Groot Jessica Miller

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography, assistant director asst. director.

Fiona Eloise Bulle

Composer Composer

Heath Brown

Makeup Makeup

Adrian Straton

Dark Epic Films

Australia USA

Alternative Title

41 The Movie

Science Fiction Drama

Humanity and the world around us Surreal and thought-provoking visions of life and death Show All…

Releases by Date

20 jul 2012, 09 aug 2013, 29 nov 2014, 21 jul 2015, releases by country.

• Premiere Made In Melbourne Film Festival
• Premiere Las Vegas Film Festival
• Premiere Rhode Island International Film Festival
• Digital PG-13 Internet Release

80 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by SlasherFan ★★

If you're going to do a story with time travel in it, I think you have two options if you don't want to confuse or annoy the viewer:

1. You either nail the time logic ( Primer , Timecrimes )

2. You use time travel poetically and you don't even worry about the logic ( The Terminator , Somewhere in Time )

41 tries to have it both ways and therefore fails.

But I think my biggest gripe was that there's NO way that motel is over 50 years old.

Review by Alex Jackson ★½ 1

If I could go back in time to yesterday, I wouldn’t watch this film

Review by porksweats ★★½

this movie could have been 41 minutes and much better, I did like how they approached time travel though that was neat

Review by park618 ½ 3

Just slash your tires dude

Review by Max Wagner ★★½

How many times did Aidan crawl out of the hole while some dude was takin a shit, and had to go “FUCK FUCK SORRY YOU DIDNT SEE ANYTHING IM GOING BACK IN THE HOLE NOW”

Review by Brandon Williams ★★★

A micro-budget SF time travel adventure... where have I seen that before 🤔. While certainly not Primer, did build a reasonably complex narrative. It has one of the more impactful last acts of mini budget SF I've seen. No waterworks, but sparked emotion. So if you choose this one, make sure to hang in there.

Admit I had to restart the film once because after a heavy pasta dinner, the first act was slow enough that I fell asleep. Only made it about 20 mins in. After a nice long nap and a Starbucks doubleshot, I grinded on through the second act. While more interesting, it still hadn't hooked me. Once past the ridiculous cop characters at the 50 min…

Review by Dina ▪️🔹 ★★★

Watched on a road trip. Time travel, so interesting premise but overall felt empty /flat.

Review by Ben “🕵️‍♂️” Jones ★★★½

Time travel films are always difficult to pull off. It either requires a sound internal logic that manages to tie together all the lose ends or you have something less science based and go with a fantastical idea of what you want time travel to be and let others worry about how it all works.

However, where 41 fails is that it tries to appease both, and whilst this works in short bursts, it ultimately falls apart because of the lack of consistency.

Despite this, what 41 does have is a lot of heart. Whilst the film changes gears several times, it's not until the final reel that it really hits it's stride, revealing the consequence in a moment of…

Review by Bram Christiaens ★½

It was a good try, but there were too many holes in his logic. Either he didn't see Timecrimes or he didn't pay attention.

Review by Rolf ★★★½

A philosophy student meets his Doppelgänger who tells him not to got to a certain place. Of course he still does which sets in motion a time travel scenario... Imagine TIMECRIMES without the crime angle. 41 uses the same premise creating many timelines which our protagonist learns to deal with until he literally finds his way. It uses all the elements which make the genre so much fun and really leaves you thinking after it's finished. It's no PRIMER though and never loses sight of its emotional core which keeps the audience close by. Made for a tiny budget in Australia 41 is clearly a passion project which may lack cinematic grandeur and struggles a bit with its cast but as so very often with this genre, it's the story that counts and I'm very happy with what I got.

Make or Break Scene: Revealing the identity of a character in the end.

MVT: The story.

Score: 7/ 10

Review by Matt White ★½

His grandmother is in a “nursing home” laying on a fucking folding table. Wtf?

Review by dklenci ★½

don't typically like to dunk on more underground stuff but this is the most bland time travel movie i've ever seen

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A fan-run subreddit for discussion of RedLetterMedia related things, but also to discuss Movies, TV shows, Video Games and basically anything RedLetterMedia discusses. Egg Salad is Here!

I just watched "41" on Amazon Prime

My roommates and I were skulking around Amazon Prime last night and came across a little joint called " 41 ". The description alone is what sold us, spinning a tale of a young student that finds a time portal to yesterday in a motel room. It had okay reviews and seemed like it could be a diamond in the rough.

What followed was without a doubt one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Imagine Primer but made by people that comment "I'm 15 and this is deep" on philosophical YouTube videos.

This hit just about every mark of terrible student films. The acting was wooden and terrible, the cinematography was trash with half the shots being out of focus and noticeable distortion from the warp stabilizer they used on nearly every shot, the dialogue was clunky and incredibly pretentious at times, the set design was laughably bad, and the time travel mechanics made no sense.

I won't go into too many details about the "plot", but if you're in the market for a terrible movie to watch and yell at with some friends, this is definitely one to check out.

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  TV-G | History & Civilizations | 1 HR 42 MIN | 2012

An endearing and enlightening portrait of the life and careers of George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States.

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It is in the film's second half that de Rezendes and O'Neill begin revealing Nicky's mysterious connection to the number 41.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 8, 2020

Little Buddha

Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Little Buddha” tells the story of a young Seattle boy who may, or may not, be the reincarnation of a venerated Buddhist teacher.

While his American parents try to deal with this possibility, which is explained to them by visiting monks from Tibet, the movie intercuts its modern story with a retelling of the life of Prince Siddhartha, who grew up to become the Buddha. The modern sequences lack realism or credibility. The ancient sequences play like the equivalent of a devout Bible story. The result is a slow-moving and pointless exercise by Bertolucci, whose “ The Last Emperor ” was a much superior telling of a similar story about a child who is chosen for great things.

Let’s begin with a not exactly hypothetical question: If you were approached by a Tibetan monk, in robe and sandals, who explained that your 10-year-old child is a reincarnated Buddhist teacher, and if the monk invited your child to Tibet, how would you react? No plausible answer to that question is contained in this movie.

Instead, Bertolucci creates a Seattle family which, in its own way, is more unreal than any of the more spiritual families in his story. Chris Isaak and Bridget Fonda play Dean and Lisa Conrad. He is an architect whose ambitious skyscraper project has just gone into bankruptcy. She is a schoolteacher. Their son, Jesse (Alex Wiesendanger), is a bright, pleasant young boy. One day Lama Norbu ( Ying Ruocheng ), a Tibetan monk now living in Seattle, dreams of a hill with their house upon it, and is drawn to the family. He explains that some nine years earlier, his wise and holy teacher passed away, and that ever since he and his fellow monks have been alert to signs of the great man’s reincarnation. It now appears that Jesse may indeed be that person.

Lisa Conrad is home alone when the monk first comes to visit.

She invites him into their home, and is intrigued, although unsettled, by his news. Later Dean also hears the story from the monk. At first he is hostile to the news. But then, after his business partner commits suicide, he has some sort of spiritual experience that causes him to question such matters as life and death, and eventually he agrees to accompany Jesse and Lama Norbu to Tibet.

The spiritual experience takes place offscreen, which is perhaps just as well, because nothing in Chris Isaak’s underwritten character is even passingly convincing. The writing, the role, the casting, or all three, never work. The American father comes across as cold, closed-off and not very bright, and he has so little dialogue that occasionally we hope for him to say two sentences in a row, so that we can find out something more subtle from him than how, in a word or two, he “feels” about something.

The mother, played by Bridget Fonda, is a more interesting character, and it is a shame she doesn’t accompany the father and child to Tibet – a shame because Lisa Conrad is more articulate, and also because the movie cries out for answers to the kinds of questions any mother would ask (such as, “You mean you really want to take my child away from me and take him to live in Tibet?”). Since the Conrads are not Buddhists, it is a bit much to expect them to understand the theology behind Lama Norbu’s plans, although the monosyllabic architect does allow, at one point, that he has been “doing some thinking.” Early in the film the monk gives the little boy a picture book about Prince Siddhartha ( Keanu Reeves ). This book, which greatly resembles free airport literature, is then read by the boy and his mother, triggering Bertolucci’s flashbacks to the origins of Buddhism. (The movie’s color strategy, by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro , schematizes these flashbacks by drenching them in warm reds, oranges, yellows and browns – as opposed to the chilly blues, grays and greens of all of the American scenes.) What I kept waiting for in “Little Buddha,” unsuccessfully, was some clue about Bertolucci’s attitude toward his material. Here we have a fundamental clash between two cultures, presented with the simplicity of a religious comic book. I cannot imagine a Buddhist filmmaker, subsidized with church money, making a film with less complexity or irony – rather the reverse, in fact. Has Bertolucci become a Buddhist? Does he believe the little boy is a reincarnated monk? Is this movie a holy story, for our edification? The scenes in Tibet are astonishingly simple-minded, especially after it appears that two Asian children may also be candidates for the reincarnation of the holy man. These three children (who eventually are said to embody three “sides” of the dead monk) are given scenes in which they play and talk together – all speaking English, of course. The movie is not even interested enough in the complexities of its story to suggest that there might be cultural differences among the children, or their parents. We’re in Buddhist Sunday School here.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Keanu Reeves as Prince Siddhartha
• Bridget Fonda as Lisa Conrad
• Chris Isaak as Dean Conrad

Directed by

• Bernardo Bertolucci

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‘Dance of the 41’ Review: Mexican Netflix Drama Spotlights a 19th-Century Queer Scandal

David Pablos unearths a cornerstone of LGBTQ history in this handsome Mexican period film.

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November 1901. Mexico City. A police raid on a high-society private party leads to the arrest of 42 men. Nineteen are found wearing lavish ball gowns that matched the opulence of the (very much illicit) affair. Among those arrested are key figures from Mexico’s ruling class, including one whose name and presence at the party is promptly erased from the record. David Pablos’ handsome period film “ Dance of the 41 ” traces the real-life story of that man: Ignacio de la Torre (Alfonso Herrera, “Sense8”), the then-son-in-law of Mexican president Porfirio Díaz.

Monika Revilla’s screenplay doesn’t begin with the political scandal that gives the film its title. Instead, it uses it as its climax, an impactful punctuation mark on a tender love story played against the backdrop of the patriarchal power structures of Mexico’s turn-of-the-century gentry. As Ignacio, who’s recently been wed to Amada Díaz (Mabel Cadena, “Monarca”) and in turn appointed to Congress, plots an ambitious political career ahead, he’s taken one night by Evaristo Rivas (Emiliano Zurita). The good-looking young lawyer’s body language and knowing glances pique Ignacio’s interests right away. As they volley euphemisms back and forth, their blush-worthy smiles indicate a kind of connection that can only bloom in darkness.

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And bloom it does. Ignacio and Evaristo (“Eva,” as he calls him) become inseparable, puppy-eyed lovers who sneak away every chance they get. Their relationship gets even more serious once Ignacio invites Eva into a secret society of fellow “Socratic lovers.” His initiation, which turns into an orgiastic bacchanal, is the first instance where it’s clear what’s happening between them isn’t merely a lust-driven affair. Where DP Carolina Costa surveys said orgy with tasteful curiosity, letting flickering candle-lit flesh serve as a throbbing backdrop, she stays close on Herrera and Zurita’s faces, letting their intimacy stand apart from the overflow of sexual desire that surrounds them.

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Their courtship and relationship, which soon becomes the talk of the town, stands in stark contrast to Ignacio and Amada’s loveless, listless marriage. In another narrative, the dutiful, wronged wife might have been a rote role, one left at the margins to better be ignored by story, characters and audiences alike, her pain necessary collateral damage for the sun-dappled gay affair at its center. Not so here. Revilla and Pablos are deeply interested in Amada’s bouts of paranoia and anxiety over her husband’s lack of interest in her body as well as in the isolation she’s made to feel because of her indigenous ancestry (her mom was refused an invitation to her wedding) and the cold shoulder she garners from her peers (“You and my father are all I have,” she pleads with Ignacio). Cadena is bewitching throughout, making the most out of scenes that risk turning Amada into a petty, pathetic little girl but instead paint a portrait of a woman robbed of her agency by a callous man who married her out of convenience.

As the gossip around Ignacio grows and he begins to feel pressure to leave Eva behind, “Dance of the 41” illuminates, however disjointly, the way men like Ignacio and women like Amada are subject to the whims of a society that has yet to make room for who they are outside of the confined roles they’ve been required to play. Theirs is a twinned and intertwined tragedy. He may find refuge among those like him in an exclusive club that basks in its privilege and insularity where men play pool and smoke cigars, host campy theatrical productions with penis-shaped props and stage high drag opera performances all the while wearing dresses or pearls or wigs if they so desire, but she has no such escape. Then again, once the film careens toward its titular event, Ignacio soon comes face-to-face with a truth he’d been hoping to outrun in between stolen nights with Eva: Such an escape was always going to be untenable.

Juggling a marital melodrama, a queer romance and a political drama within a chronicle of a pivotal historical scandal, “Dance of the 41” was always going to be an ambitious proposition. One whose lofty aspirations are suggested in some of its most affecting scenes. Its final beat, like the entirety of its fabulous, tragic final act, is as masterful as it is heartbreaking. As a whole, though, it remains too stilted, like a painstakingly staged tableau vivant of late-19th-century Mexico and the patriarchal power structures that undergirded it.

Reviewed online, Los Angeles, May 18, 2021. (In Morelia, San Francisco film festivals.) Running time: 99 MIN. (Original title: “El baile de los 41”)

• Production: (Brazil-Mexico) A Netflix release of an El Estudio, Canana production, in co-production with Bananeira Filmes, Labo Digital, Equipment & Film Design, Canal Brasil, Telecine, with the support of Estímulo Fiscal Eficine Producción 189, Alsea, Cinépolis, Nacobre, with the assistance of Jalisco, Filma en Jalisco, Programa Ibermedia, Espora Films. Producers: Pablo Cruz, Marta Núñez Puerto, Arturo Sampson Alazraki. Executive producers: Charles Barthe, Giulia Cardamone, Isabel Lopez Polanco, Monika Revilla, Diego Suarez Chialvo.
• Crew: Director: David Pablos. Screenplay: Monika Revilla. Camera: Carolina Costa. Editor: Soledad Salfate. Music: Carlo Ayhllon, Andrea Balency-Béarn.
• With: Alfonso Herrera, Emiliano Zurita, Paulina Álvarez Muñoz, Fernando Becerril, Mabel Cadena, Amada Díaz. (Spanish dialogue)

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200 Greatest Songs of the 70s 50-41

• Episode aired Aug 27, 2024

The series continues with songs #50-41 with music experts like Steven Adler, Sebastian Bach, and James Durbin who go over everything from Rod Stewart to James Brown. The series continues with songs #50-41 with music experts like Steven Adler, Sebastian Bach, and James Durbin who go over everything from Rod Stewart to James Brown. The series continues with songs #50-41 with music experts like Steven Adler, Sebastian Bach, and James Durbin who go over everything from Rod Stewart to James Brown.

• Steven Adler
• Sebastian Bach
• Kevin Blatt

Top cast 15

• Self - Host

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• August 27, 2024 (United States)
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