TEDDY, OUT OF TUNE
2020, FEATURE FILM, 66 minutes
director, cinematographer, writer, editor, composer
REVIEWS
Mill Valley Film Festival
“Teddy, Out of Tune is a poignant portrait of a charismatic but troubled wayward street musician. After the passing of his mother, Teddy decides to drive from Arizona to Canada to spread her ashes and give her a proper goodbye. With little more than the piano tethered to his truck, Teddy's solitary journey quickly becomes one of camaraderie and healing as he encounters various friends and characters along the way. Teddy, Out of Tune is a bold and arresting debut feature, deftly filmed in gorgeous kaleidoscopic cinema vérité-style by director Daniel Freeman. Freeman co-wrote the film with actor Drew Connick, whose raw performance as Teddy is the film’s dynamic life force. With Connick seamlessly and effortlessly embodying Teddy through compelling, unexpected interactions with real people along his trip, Teddy, Out of Tune is a gripping mix of fiction and non-fiction, full of keen observations about loss, stability, and growth.”
Scott Braid, Maryland Film Festival
“This tender and elegiac portrait offers us the chance to ride shotgun with Teddy, as he drives on up the road, crying and laughing, swimming and frolicking, loving and fighting his way through the pain. A raw and intimate film that could handily draw comparisons to both the Maysles Brothers’ Grey Gardens and Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, and yet Teddy, Out of Tune is wholly it’s own film. A gripping portrait of a life in transition, so deeply human in it’s observations that one can’t walk away unaffected by Teddy’s unpretentious and soulful way of being—an outsider in a world that doesn’t make enough space for those who don’t wish to jump through its hoops.” – Scott Braid, Maryland Film Festival - Director of Programming
