Cullen Hoback
Fact Rubs Fiction Raw in Unsettling Triangulated Tale of Forbidden Love
Once upon a time there was a commercial for a company called Memorex in which jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald’s voice was employed to shatter a wine glass. The ad prompted viewers to ponder whether the flying shards were the result of Ella’s actual ear-splitting soprano hitting its highest register or of a faithful recording of it on high quality audiotape.
Just such a conundrum fuels the fires of Friction, the cinematic equivalent of that memorable Memorex classic. The film revolves around the love triangle which surfaces over the course of the summer at a camp in New Hampshire called Arts in Action when a vulnerable 15 year-old develops feelings for the wife of the director.
