THE ELEVATOR ON 74TH STREET

A meditation on the not-so-accidental circumstances that bring us together.

Ellie, the hardest-working elevator on 74th Street, spends her days cheerfully ferrying residents from floor to floor. She loves her job and the occupants she provides bespoke service to; she modulates the volume of the music she plays for hard-of-hearing Mrs. Sanchez, and she patiently waits for Mr. Chen, who uses a cane. But no tenant is dearer than Thea, a fashionable, bespectacled adolescent. After Thea’s best friend relocates to the West Coast, Ellie kicks her care into overdrive, making each trip extra pleasant for the girl in an effort to ease her heartbreak. When her usual tricks don’t provide their intended lift, Ellie hatches a matchmaking plan, staging scenarios meant to foster friendship between Thea and a new neighbor named Claire and effecting kindnesses that go neither unnoticed nor unrewarded. A charming retro-futurism suffuses the story in both plot and aesthetic; Gehl’s comfortable and familiar narrative is an apt match for the vintage-feeling images that enliven our anthropomorphized protagonist. Imamura’s grounding use of negative space brings visual texture to each spread, as do the occasional pops of neon yellow that stipple an earth-toned palette. Ellie’s robotic visage is just subtle enough to make her reveal as the main character a delightful surprise, an unexpected start to an otherwise-understated tale. Thea presents East Asian, and Claire is Black; peripheral characters are diverse.

A stylish and lovely perspective on happenstance.