Review Fix Exclusive: Brian Smolensky Talks ‘Searching for Fortune’

Review Fix chats with Searching for Fortune director Brian Smolensky, who discusses the creative process behind the film and how it feels to be a part of the Queens World Film Festival.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for your film?

Smolensky: My favorite movies, with a few exceptions, are ’70s movies — The Deer Hunter, Five Easy Pieces, Taxi Driver, etc. Many movies then were about working-class people and the hard-scrabble life of scraping-by in America. They were about the ambiguity of existence in a world that forces you to rent your life away by the hour. I wanted to write a story like that. Deer Hunter in a time without the draft. Without the war. Since the draft no longer exists, my generation’s war, to quote Chuck Palahniuk, is “a spiritual war.” A war of identity. So Michael must face his potential, the dice roll of his birth, and try to reconcile to two while forging a new path forward in a life that was, until now, a well worn, comfortable rut.

Outside of movies, my inspiration came from my life. I grew up in a working class, cow-town in Florida. Spent my youth working as a roofer, a cowboy, a carpenter. Mending fences, painting houses, mowing lawns. My brother stayed in our hometown and became an electrician. I left and went to the Air Force Academy and flew jets for a time. I was fascinated by the different paths out lives took given that they started in the same place. One is not better than the other, but the distance between them is certainly quite far. My brother was always the more gifted person. He, like Michael in the film, always hit the ball out of the park every time life threw a pitch near the plate. He just didn’t get the same pitches I did. So my brother was a big inspiration for the movie, and certainly for the character of Michael Denton Junior.  In essence, this film is a love letter to him. A chance for me to look at the world from my brother’s perspective. To reach across that distance and connect with him on a level that only stories can bring.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself while making?

Smolensky: I learned the value and power of keeping a dream alive. I wrote this screenplay seven years ago. It has gone through so many near-miss productions. So many almost-got-the-fundings. There were times that I wanted to give up. But I kept sending it out there. Kept giving it to people to read. And eventually, finally, it made its way into the right hands. Seven years is a long time to keep dreaming. And if someone would have asked me seven years ago if I would keep at this for that long, I would have said no. I wouldn’t have thought I had it in me. But dreams are powerful things.

Review Fix: What was the most challenging part of making it?

Smolensky: As a writer, most of the work was done before the “making” part started. As an actor, the most challenging part was remaining faithful to the character’s arc.  Joe, Phil, and Mandi scrounged around and came up with a portion of the funding needed to make the film and, in order to get the rest, we took the money we had and shot a small portion of the film, cut it together, and used it to raise the remaining funds. Obviously, this proved successful. However, it meant that a small, but a crucial, scene was shot one year before the rest of the movie. And as an actor, in the moment, I wanted so much to play it to the hilt. To go all out. To release all the character’s tension. But the scene where that actually happens is later in the film. So I had to hold back just enough to leave the character room to move in those later scenes. That was tough. Joe was very easy to work with that night and really helped me keep it in check. I think we succeeded in hitting the right notes.

Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?

Smolensky: At a time when it seems impossible to be sympathetic to working-class Americans and be a progressive, I hope that this film is remembered for threading that needle. For depicting blue-collar life with a tender touch. For rendering the lives of these hard-working people with empathy and understanding. For showing their world with as much realism as possible. Without pity or derision, we made a movie that strove to show the truth of their lives and hopefully, at least for a moment or two, we succeeded.

Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of the festival?

Smolensky: The QWFF feels like what I imagine Sundance was like in the 1980’s — before it became a Mecca for consumerism, brands, and marketing — when it had its finger on the pulse of truly independent films. Don and Katha run a festival that is focused on shining a bright light on the thriving world of independent film. That is so rare and is something to be cherished.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Smolensky: My novel, Fellow Man, is out to agents and publishers right now. It is a duel narrative story about Hurricane Katrina and deals with themes of equality, love, identity, human potential, the power of art, the limits of stories, and the never-ending battle for the survival of the human spirit. I just finished adapting the novel into a screenplay and a few production companies have already requested a copy of the script.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Brian Smolensky: I would like to add that friendship is very important in this industry and I was fortunate enough to make this movie with my friends. It made the struggles easier and the triumphs all the sweeter. I’d like to thank them all for their love and support. It was a dream come true.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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