I Used to Be Darker

I Used to Be Darker is a 2013 independent drama film set and shot in Maryland, the third feature film directed by Matthew Porterfield.

I Used to Be Darker
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMatthew Porterfield
Produced by
  • Eric Bannat
  • Steve Holmgren
  • Ryan Zacarias
Written by
  • Amy Belk
  • Matthew Porterfield
Starring
Music byLinda Cohen
CinematographyJeremy Saulnier
Edited byMarc Vives
Production
company
  • The Hamilton Film Group
  • Steady Orbits
  • Nomadic Independence Pictures
Distributed byStrand Releasing
Release date
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$42,394[1]
Box office$22,214[2]

Plot

Cast
  • Deragh Campbell as Taryn
  • Hannah Gross as Abby
  • Ned Oldham as Bill
  • Kim Taylor as Kim
  • Nicholas Petr as Nick
  • Geoff Grace as Geoff
  • John Belanger as Ben
  • Jack Carneal as Jack
  • Juan Eloy Carrera as Arcade Player
  • Adèle Exarchopoulos as Camille
  • Blake Pruitt as High Schooler
  • Declan Sammon as Sam
  • Ellis Woodward as Tom
  • Jimi Zhivago as Jimi

Development

Production

In July 2011, Matthew Porterfield started raising money to fund the production of I Used to Be Darker via Kickstarter. The project achieved its goal of $40,000 on August 13, 2011.[1][3]

Cast

Porterfield had already known Ned Oldham for several years before casting him as Bill, and Amy Belk went to college with Kim Taylor in the 1990s. After meeting Taylor and seeing her perform, Porterfield "knew almost immediately she had what [he] was looking for". Porterfield first met Hannah Gross and Deragh Campbell when they attended the premiere of his previous film, Putty Hill (2010), but didn't keep in touch with them. He later auditioned Gross, following advice from a friend who is a professor at New York University, where Gross studies in the Experimental Theater Wing. Through Gross, Porterfield later met Campbell and cast them both in the film.[3]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 7.34 out of 10.[4] On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 10 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[5]

A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club gave the film a grade A-, and wrote: "Drenched in the evening glow of its urban and suburban backdrops, Darker comes alive in the dark, when its characters are drowning their sorrows in song, the sauce, or conversation."[6] Sheri Linden of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "It's a story of contained chaos, quietly observed — one that catches fire more in retrospect than in the viewing."[7]

Accolades

I Used to Be Darker won the award for Best Narrative Feature at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2013 and Matthew Porterfield won the award for Best Director at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema.[8]

gollark: A lot of the time you're just doing boring drudgery integrating other already-existing things, which will soon be significantly automated I think. Sometimes you actually need to spend time thinking about clever algorithms to do a thing, or how to make your thing go faster, or why your code mysteriously doesn't work, which is harder.
gollark: It's mentally challenging, sometimes, but obviously not particularly physically hard.
gollark: There are lots of cool applications now. Automatic generation of art, protein folding, human-level competitive programming, good OCR.
gollark: Ah, but it's *very complicated* curve fitting which can sometimes do interesting things.
gollark: Any particular improvement might not work, but I would be *very very surprised* if people several hundred years ago just happened to stumble on the optimal court system.

References
  1. "I Used to Be Darker". Kickstarter. Retrieved May 27, 2014.
  2. "I Used to Be Darker (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 27, 2014.
  3. Asch, Mark (July 21, 2011). "Talking to Matthew Porterfield About His Third Film, I Used to Be Darker, Now Kickstarting". L Magazine. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  4. "I Used To Be Darker (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  5. "I Used to Be Darker Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  6. "I Used To Be Darker".
  7. "Review: A family faces crisis in the muted 'I Used to Be Darker'". Los Angeles Times. 10 October 2013.
  8. James, Lauren (September 19, 2013). "'I Used To Be Darker': Watch The Trailer For Upcoming Affecting Family Drama [Trailer]". contactmusic.com. Retrieved May 27, 2014.
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