{"id":7088,"date":"2010-02-11T14:18:35","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T22:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7088"},"modified":"2010-02-11T14:39:03","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T22:39:03","slug":"the-hungry-ghosts-michael-imperioli-2009-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7088","title":{"rendered":"The Hungry Ghosts (Michael Imperioli, 2009): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by <a href=\"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?author=49\">Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.screendaily.com\/pictures\/586xAny\/5\/9\/3\/14593_4040423.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"322\" height=\"234\" style=\"margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; float: left\"\/>\u00a0 Frank is loud, foul-mouthed and slightly drunk.\u00a0 He is seated inside a club drinking and playing 21.<\/p>\n<p>Nadia is assisting an elderly in their own\u00a0death.<\/p>\n<p>Frank is bounced out of the club after several warnings and finds himself at the back door of another.<\/p>\n<p>Nadia quietly\u00a0skips out on her land-lady, only to find herself homeless.\u00a0 When the homeowner returns to find her sitting on their stoop with her baggage, a fight ensues.<\/p>\n<p>Back and forth, the audience is bounced around in Michael Imperioli&#8217;s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1225902\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hungry Ghosts<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 We eventually\u00a0discover that Frank (Steve Schirripa)\u00a0is a local radio host and a loser dad to a teenage boy named Matthew (Emory Cohen).\u00a0 Matthew and Frank visit a therapist, because Frank is an absentee dad, or when he is present he&#8217;s habitually late.\u00a0 Frank is not only selfish, he also swallows meds with\u00a0alcohol and is addicted to blow.<\/p>\n<p>Enter Gus (Nick Sandow), a new character who&#8217;s\u00a0a recovering addict.\u00a0 He\u00a0makes several attempts\u00a0to contact Nadia (Aunjanue Ellis) who&#8217;s a yoga\/new age follower, and who&#8217;s\u00a0pretty much finished with Gus.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Matthew ditches therapy with dad and sits all day on a park bench, until he is ultimately\u00a0picked up, fed drugs and alcohol, and seduced into a menage a trois\u00a0by a creepy\u00a0older couple.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the strong acting talent, the plot leaves you empty with characters of little or no redeeming value.\u00a0 A hungry ghost is an unfulfilled spirit that feeds on the emotions of humans, causing them addictions &#8211; having appetites that are never satisfied.\u00a0 Okay, I get all that, but what exactly is Imperioli&#8217;s message?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. \u00a0 Frank is loud, foul-mouthed and slightly drunk.\u00a0 He is seated inside a club drinking and playing 21. Nadia is assisting an elderly in their own\u00a0death. Frank is bounced out of the club after several warnings and finds himself at the back door [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}