Filmmaker
Pericles Lewnes (Loop) called the film “Tremendous.
Hunger was the crown jewel of the festival. With
the precise direction of Maria Giese, a PERFECT
performance by Joseph Culp, and a splendid score
from Emmy winner Trevor Morris and the studio of
Hans Zimmer, Hunger transcended everything it had
going against it and is a true guerrilla masterpiece.
That is no slight. It was as guerrilla as a movie
can get-- it can stand tall with anything made by
a studio or major independent. Hunger brought back
memories of Jarmusch, Hartley, and Nick Gomez, but
it was better. I recommend Hunger with great confidence
to anyone who wants an enjoyable, meaningful, magical
cinematic experience…”
Critic/Screenwriter,
Cyndi Kennedy wrote that “Joseph Culp's brilliant
portrayal of the down-and-out screenwriter is nothing
less than Chaplinesque-- the character he gives
us is at once endearing, annoying, pathetic, and
deeply profound.
“Hunger is a parable of the human ego as its
main character makes the agonizing journey to confront
reality, both on the gritty level of survival and
on the more esoteric level, which Andrew Harvey,
the great Sufi scholar, describes as the place where
the soul is, "burnt alive (...) mocked, derided,
lacerated, opened up by visionary ecstasy…
“Passionate and agonizing… (Hunger is)
…a thrilling and visually beautiful rendering
of a profound truth. Director Maria Giese gets credit,
not only for recognizing the beauty of the message
of Knut Hamsun's masterpiece, but for bringing it
to the screen in such an alarming, visceral, scrappy
way (scrappy, not in the sense of ‘fragmented’,
but in the sense of ‘fighting spirit’).
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