Fine Acting, Direction Power ‘Without Air’

“Without Air”--that’s what Shay, a talented Memphis singer on a downward spiral, is experiencing in this superb 1994 film only now surfacing to launch a new cycle of American independent films at the Grande 4-Plex.

As the film opens, Shay, in voice-over, tells us that her mother told her that “people come into our lives to teach us about ourselves and we might not ever seem them again” and that we may not even realize what we’ve learned from them.

Shay (Lauri Crook) is only too aware that she is desperate for insight and direction in her life and career. She’s caught up in a relationship with a guitarist, Radio (Jack May), in a rock band in which she is a singer. Shay and Radio are really in love but seem only to connect when they’re high on heroin.

They’ve reached a point where they’re spiraling downward. Their rock band apparently is going nowhere, and Shay supports herself and Radio--and their habit--by working as a stripper. Although she earns extra money setting up fellow strippers with dates with customers, she hasn’t yet crossed the line from pimping to selling herself.

Meanwhile, the layabout Radio is consumed with jealousy. “All you do is sit around and wonder what I’m doing while you do nothing,” protests Shay.

The question is whether Shay, who is self-aware, reflective and honest with herself, will gather enough strength to break away from Radio and get her life and career together. In a film that draws from her own experiences, Crook and writer-director Neil Abramson make you care very much that she succeed.

Shay’s--or Crook’s--story is surely familiar but not the way Abramson, who is his own cinematographer, tells it. Shot in black and white in the seedier sections of Memphis, “Without Air” has an assured style, lyrical yet succinct, and a shimmering, otherworldly score by Kennard Ramsey.

What’s more, both Crook and May have strong presences and come through with blow-you-away portrayals. Crook’s Shay has a stunning figure but her face is as worn as that of Janis Joplin; Shay even has a Joplin poster over her bed. May’s Radio is boyish-looking. The two are probably the same age, but they at times look as though they could be mother and son, which may well be an aspect of their relationship.

Should Shay dare to try to have a future for herself, it would seem to be as a blues singer rather than as a rock singer. The only friend she has is a veteran blues guitarist (Nokie Taylor), who nurtures and coaches her as the artist that he sees she could be. When she sings at the club where he plays in the band, she really tears it up, with a voice as raw yet tender as this movie is itself.

We’re left hoping that for Shay this man is one of those people her mother was talking about, and that his lessons just might save her life.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: strong language, drug-taking and some violence and nudity.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

‘Without Air’

Lauri Crook: Shay

Jack May: Radio

Nokie Taylor: Harry

Pat Lawyer: Cajun Clyde

A Phaedra Cinema release. Writer-director-cinematographer Neil Abramson. Producer John Bick. Editor Suzanne Hines. Music Kennard Ramsey. Production designer Paula Good. Art director Henk Haselager. Set decorator Karen Hampson. Running time: 1 hour, 27 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Grande 4-Plex for one week, 345 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, (213) 617-0268.