Directed By Jeremy Workman

Starring – Michael Townsend, Colin Bliss, Adriana Valdez-Young

The Plot – In 2003, eight young Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment in a hidden space inside the Providence Place Mall and lived in it for four years, filming everything along the way. They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even secretly constructed a brick wall with a locking door, smuggling in over 2 tons of cinderblock. Far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for all its inhabitants – a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, a clubhouse to coordinate their artistic charity, and finally, a 750 square foot space that sticks it to the man.

This film is currently not rated

Secret Mall Apartment | Official Trailer HD

POSITIVES

George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” implanted the fantasy of living in a mall, but “Secret Mall Apartment” takes it to a whole other level, articulating the four year odyssey of living in an unpaid, unfurnished residence that initially began as an art project, before evolving into an examination of utilized excessive space that our culture takes for granted. This is the main focal point of the documentary, as Providence, a city plagued by underdevelopment and gentrification, often overlook these opportunistic avenues within their own properties, and through the eyes of the quirkily zany Townsend and his group of adventure-seeking friends, the film points out those unsettling ironies with an air of caustic personality in audacious discovery that makes it such an entertainingly endearing story, showcasing how far someone can go for their own success when all of the basic amenities are stripped down. Learning about their everyday realities in this claustrophobically damp space is ultimately what I sought out the film for, especially in how they were able to garner basic needs like electricity or heating, and though all of those questions are answered to tremendous detail at some point in the duration of the narrative, I surprisingly and appreciatingly left with a far more knowledgeable and inspiring outlook on the cause of their various missions, which might initially feel a little self-indulgent towards leaning so heavily on Townsend’s own backstory, but in the extensive whole articulates a bigger picture to this group essentially being heroes who continuously sought out the bigger mission ahead, not only using their opportunistic impulses to make a difference for others, but also enacting the ages old idea of being the change that you wish to see in the world, which in turn supplants a honorably heartfelt center at this movie’s core. As for technical components, when it’s not utilizing updated equipment during cast interviews, the movie accessibly utilizes the group’s many stored memories inside of an early 2000’s digital camera, and though it lacks the sight and sound clarity of today’s technological standards, Workman’s decision to implement them to the engagement and particularly the visual storytelling does teleport us seamlessly to the timely framing. In terms of coherence and stylistic appeal, it leaves slightly more to be desired, but through experiencing this within such low grade grainy quality, really captures the grittiness of the conditions within the apartment, casting a nostalgic glow to the memories of the photography that invoke the essence of a simpler time. The amount of processed footage corresponds brilliantly with the many talking points within the engagement, particularly those involving the crew constantly evading mall security, which ratcheted the tension every bit as effectively as a highly budgeted cinematic offering. When the presentation isn’t using stock footage of the group’s various exploits, it conjures some sharp artistic aesthetics in on-screen graphics that help paint a deeper outlook towards Providence’s As for the interviews, I was really impressed by the assemblance of not only every one of the eight members who took residence inside of this manufactured apartment, but also the variety of inner-city politicians, art critics, and even store employees, who appraise a much-needed outsiders perspective to what this group was able to accomplish. The exploration of the documentary does feel compartmentalized into these isolated chapters that feels a bit steered in structure, however the conversations converged with them do give the manipulated essence of feeling like they’re casually bouncing off of one another, leaving no thematic stone unturned towards an articulated picture so vividly described that the audience feels like they can practically reach out and touch it, all the while painting this admirably genuine portrait of Townsend that methodizes the mayhem of his many unorthodox actions. Lastly, Workman makes the daring-but-advantageous decision to enact a production design team towards building the room from scratch, initially feeling like a means to grant closure to these people who haven’t seen it in seventeen years, but ultimately used to fill in the gaps of moments unexperienced on film with recreating dramatizations that bring their own humorous underlining with them. Dramatizations typically come across as silly and surreal, but here those very same preconceived fears are used to flourish a variety of hilarious cliffhangers during the moment the plan of this group comes tumbling down, and while humor is used sparingly throughout the engagement, here the need to openly embrace it attains their greatest laughs throughout the 86-minute duration, attaining a sentimental-but-surreal finality that combines the entertainment factor of cinema with the factuality of documentaries, all in order to immerse ourselves into the introspective feelings that Townsend had in saying goodbye.

NEGATIVES

As for underwhelming aspects, the narrative’s honorable decision to implement a message of community does bring with it the tender feelings of inspiration that can offer something uniquely gratifying for each member of the audience, but it too frequently takes away focus in the on-screen time allowance of living in and within this apartment. This is especially troubling if your sole mission for seeing the film is experiencing everything that these young adults went through, in order to make a home of their own, especially as four years flies across the screen with little to no emphasis in the interview recounting, resulting in abrupt time shifts forward and very little actual accounting of the interactions and experiences within the apartment that I definitely could’ve used more of. While the film eventually attempts this objective near the end of the movie, with Michael and Adriana’s rocky relationship taking a toll on account of him investing all of his time to their fictional apartment, instead of their real one, it isn’t enough of a bigger picture to articulate who the supporting people of this art project were, beyond Michael, a fact made worse by the imbalance of the interview usage that grew a bit distracting as the film proceeded into its second hour. While it’s understandable that the guests are essentially rattling off the same word-for-word information among their recounted experiences, the trio of females within in the group particularly go absent for extended periods of time in the documentary’s duration, and it’s a perspective that I wish received more focus, especially considering a woman’s experiences always vary more vulnerably from those of a man. Adriana definitely receives the most focus between them, especially once the storytelling delves more into her and Michael’s relationship, however it’s never enough to keep me from forgetting that her or the other two women are a vital part of this objective, and I for one would’ve welcomed a longer run time if it meant fleshing out more of their perspectives, against the balance of the males receiving a far bigger piece of the focusing pie.

OVERALL
“Secret Mall Apartment” is an astonishingly wild and thoughtfully sincere portrait of the do-it-yourself human mentality that led eight friends to take a stand against the gentrification of a city nearly unrecognizable from its greedy impulses. Though the story has a lot more on its mind than a residential prank, it never feels overwhelmed or shortchanged by its abundance of talking points, instead building an entertainingly insightful foundation that houses a lot of personality and perseverance under one roof, cementing a thought-provoking outlook towards occupancy utilization that we as a society could learn plenty from.

My Grade: 8.0 or B+