The moment near the end of a film that puts everything you have just watched into perspective is a dicey proposition. It requires the closing payoff to be something worth waiting for–and more importantly, it demands deft storytelling. To purposefully omit something by writing around it, then carefully drive the story towards it later, takes considerable skill to pull off. In It Was You Charlie, there is a lot of writing around, writing towards, and a final reveal at the end. The question is, is it worth it?

Abner (Michael D. Cohen) is a third-shift doorman whose own life has haunted him for the last two years. The former academic was shunned by the woman he loved, betrayed by his brother, and was a key participant in a horrific car accident.  The accident has left such a scar on his soul, he has built a diorama of the scene in his apartment. It’s as if he is punishing himself for the accident by being able to relive it whenever he wants. Unable to find happiness, Abner resigns himself to suicide, but his repeated attempts–by different measures–fail.

Zoe (Emma Fleury), a mysterious young blonde cab driver in a bright yellow beret, appears in Abner’s life, but for reasons he cannot understand. Nor does he understand the repeated appearance of strange men in trench coats who seem to follow him wherever he goes. There is also something about a painting in his local diner that mesmerizes him. Estranged from his family and even further estranged from a normal life, Abner must make sense of the things around him and come to terms with what has haunted him these years.

The answer to the question, “Is it all worth it?” is a firm “No,” but it isn’t for lack of trying. What makes this feature debut for Canadian writer/director Emmanuel Shirinian so frustrating is that the film knows what it wanted to achieve, but it struggles to pull it off. Eventually, It Was You Charlie suffers under the weight of its own super-sized gimmick.

Shirinian’s biggest gamble is that he doesn’t just attempt a clever reveal; he doubles-down to present the film as a non-linear story. The tale begins and ends in the present, but randomly hops around Abner’s 40th, 41st, and 42nd birthdays. This jagged presentation demands the smoothest and clearest storytelling possible, but it doesn’t happen here. Shirinian’s presentation of facts instead provides details not like overlays leading to a clear final picture, but like random puzzle pieces that are all eventually necessary, but without any ongoing assembly of them.

This convolution undermines the greater story, which, at a higher level, is an interesting one. It’s a story about a man who has unaddressed emotional issues that need attention–issues of guilt and regret, how they affect him, and how they might be tangentially connected, but in no way related in some cause-and-effect construct that he seems to think exists. There are also two minor side-stories (far too slight to be subplots)–one about Abner’s lonely landlord and the other about an unhinged coworker–neither do nothing to further story or character, thus only serve as a distraction.

There are also attempts to make It Was you Charlie something of a black comedy. The scenes with Abner’s attempted suicides somewhat work, especially given Abner’s physical build. Though, most of the humorous moments try too hard to be funny and only manage to feel forced and fall flat (the scene with the suicide hotline putting Abner on hold– a joke as old as time–is a key example).

Holding it all together as best he can is the film’s rock, Cohen, who has a character actor’s appearance but a leading man’s screen presence. He plays defeat very well, with a great sense of desperation forged by circumstance. Cohen clearly understands the weight of his character’s pain and maximizes his nebbish looks to full, depressing affect. This is magnified in scenes with Abner’s taller, much better-looking brother Tom, played by Aaron Abrams. While the rest of the characters are finely portrayed by their respective actors, are there only in support of the lead; It Was You Charlie is The Abner show.

Throughout It Was You Charlie, there is a sense that Shirinian has a firm grasp of the complete film in his head, but he struggles to make a clear presentation of it on-screen. Cohen’s performance, as well as Luc Montpellier’s excellent cinematography, are bright spots of the film. However, the haze of the story dims those bright spots considerably.

It Was You Charlie, directed by Emmanuel Shirinian, follows Abner (Michael D. Cohen), a graveyard shift doorman with a lot on his mind: He’s plagued by suicidal thoughts, haunted by the memory of a car accident that claimed the life of a woman, and still mulling over a conflict involving the woman he loved and his own brother.

A dark comedy that blurs genre lines, the film is a showcase for Cohen, who along with his fellow cast and crew was nominated for a Gemini for the Canadian animated series Grossology, has appeared on numerous TV shows including The Mindy Project, Modern Family, and Eagleheart, and will appear alongside Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons in the upcoming drummer drama Whiplash. It Was You Charlie is playing in select theaters in Canada. Visit the film’s facebook page for screening info.

We spoke with Cohen about an acting technique called “Brain Spotting”, his attraction to psychologically stimulating roles, Diane Lane, finding our cerebral “Garden of Eden”, the under-appreciated role of a film’s first AD, and more.

You’re an acting coach in Los Angeles, and you teach something called “Brain Spotting”. Tell me about it.
Michael: It’s one aspect of what I do. One of the tools in my tool belt of techniques, I suppose. Brain spotting a technique that was developed by a man named David Grand, who is a trauma therapist based in New York. He specialized in a technique called EMDR, which is used by trauma therapists, and from that he spun out brain spotting. He found he was able to use these techniques with actors to shortcut certain emotional preps that need to happen. The idea is, our brain is so vast and untapped that we can actually create memories and experiences and tap into them completely through the subconscious that is the character’s, and not our own. It sounds very strange, but when you experience it, it feels very natural. It’s a very expansive, powerful tool, but it’s not the only tool. I believe brain-based work like this is the cutting edge, the next frontier for creative people.

Because you’re drawn to these sort of psychological approaches to acting, the role of Abner must have appealed to you quite a bit.
Michael: Yeah, in a lot of different ways. When I did this role, I had just met David. So I didn’t really get to sink my teeth into it to the degree one could, but this character has experienced post-traumatic stress, is suicidal, and has black-outs, so there’s a lot of psychological and emotional background to this guy. Having someone like David on my team to reference was great. I’d ask him, “Is this what someone would do if they had post-traumatic stress?” I wanted to keep it as authentic as possible. I have a background in human physiology and biochemistry, so I’ve always been fascinated with how the mind and body intersect. As a teacher, I watch students process and help them understand their instrument, and as an actor, I study how a character sees their world, how they process trauma…it’s fascinating to me on so many different levels.

What’s a performance by an actor in which you think they exhibited a good psychological understanding of their character?
Michael: What comes to mind right away is Diane Lane in Unfaithful. She’s sitting on the subway coming back from just having been with the artist she’s having an affair with, and she goes through this non-verbal process of guilt, complete post-coital bliss, and shame. Her face gets red. You watch her go through this process, and this is someone who is so connected to the reality of the character that her body is responding.

What a lot of our techniques as actors do is work from the outside in: You create a backstory, and you go in through the cognitive, down into the subconscious. When you really understand your character, it lights a spark in the subconscious and allows information to filter up as opposed to starting from the cognitive and going down into the subconscious. As David would say, there’s the cortical brain, which is our conscious brain, and there’s the neo-cortical, which is the subconscious, the part of our brain that’s older. That’s the part that’s rich with creative information. It’s like a Garden of Eden. Gifted actors like Diane Lane tap into that so much more readily. We’re trying to access our authentic self and get that engine going that motors the acting instrument. Do you remember that scene in Unfaithful?

Sure do. She’s biting her nails, squirming, smiling, crying. Really great.
Michael: Yes! She’s doing exactly what you would do if you’d just done what she’s done. She’s so specific and resonant and relatable.

As an actor, are you on the hunt for material that will allow you to use these sort of cerebral tools?
Michael: I’m on the hunt for any material that resonates. I don’t have a specific agenda. The roles that have come to me has been kind of perfect at the time. I’m not going to be so cocky as to pretend I know what the next step in my career is. It’s going to show up, and I’m going to say, “This feels right.”

I haven’t seen the film yet, but from the trailer I gather I have a few things in common with Abner!
Michael: [laughs] In many ways, the film is a dark comedy. There are comedic moments that you wouldn’t find in a normal drama. Comedy is very near and dear to my heart; I grew up idolizing Carol Burnett. I’ve realized that humor is a really big deal in terms of drama. There’s a difference between comedy and humor. If we omit the humor–even in the darkest moments–we’re not representing humanity accurately. We use humor as a tool to cope, especially in our darkest moments. Otherwise, we’d go nuts. What’s amazing about this film is that Emmanuel managed to straddle genres and create consistency in tone, which I think is an incredible feat. Even though we have moments where there’s physical comedy involved, when we go back into something dark or emotional, people are onboard. It was a really collaborative process between me and Emmanuel.

The film actually takes place over the course of 24 hours. My character’s a doorman at a hotel, so he’s a nightshift worker. Over the course of the day, he has flashbacks–three years back, two years back–but the real time is one day. We were shooting out of sequence, so we had to make sure we were hitting the right emotional points and that my character was at a particular point of paranoia, because he’s getting paranoid at different points. I had a big chart on my wall to tell me where I should be emotionally when we shot out of sequence.

How difficult was it to shift your emotional state so frequently?
Michael: Mark Pancer, who’s a very experienced first AD in Toronto, is an artist when it comes to scheduling scenes. He tried to put all the scenes together that fit, emotionally. Given all the location restraints that he had, given cast and crew availability, he put together a shooting schedule that made it so much easier for me. I only started to realize this about two thirds of the way through. He gave me a great appreciation for the first AD’s job.

Welcome to Secret Stash, our series of conversations with filmmakers, actors, and critics about their favorite films that didn’t get the recognition or find the audience they deserved because they were too weird, too hard to find, or (of course) too indie.

In this installment of Secret Stash, actor Michael D. Cohen shares with us some of his favorite films that didn’t get the recognition they deserved or, in some cases, simply got buried in time. Michael has made several TV show appearances, including The Mindy Project, 2 Broke Girls, Modern Family, and Eagleheart, and he was nominated for a Gemini along with his cast-mates in the Canadian animated series Grossology. He’ll be sharing the big screen with Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons this fall in the anticipated drummer drama Whiplash, and he stars in the leading role in the upcoming dark indie comedy It Was You Charlie, which premieres at TIFF Lightbox on August 15th. Look for our in-depth interview with Michael about that film next week.

Michael’s Secret Stash:

54 (Netflix)

Last Night (Amazon)

Ordinary People

Top Secret!
A Fish Called Wanda (Amazon)
The Celebration
Butterflies are Free
Unfaithful
O’Horten